I recently published an article about my 11th grade English teacher, the crappy wannabe writer. Most of what I write and publish I feel could have been better, it could have been edited more, revised more, or I could have simply waited just a little while longer before publishing it online, thereby releasing it into the great big world for all to see.
All these things I thought about today… The feelings of inadequacy, imperfection, and underachievement are common among creative types, introverts especially. Sometimes I think back to my 11th grade English class where I would spend an hour writing one single piece, then my teacher would make me agonize over insignificant details like punctuation and whether or not I had included too many adjectives, or simply too few. I think maybe I wasted countless hours, frustrated, staring at a computer screen moving punctuation back and forth for no legitimate reason or gain, while that time could have been better spent writing down my thoughts and experiences.
Life goes by pretty fast and unless one stops and takes the time to write down the things that truly matter, we risk losing those things forever. I instructed Angie to hold onto my writing notebooks and keep them in a safe place if anything should ever happen to me. While everyone I know is out slaving away at jobs they hate, I am instead devoting my life to my writing, and the pursuit of the higher mind.
