Writing & Inspiration
When did you learn you could write?
Have you ever thought about what inspired you to write for the first time?
Looking back, it was probably in 3rd grade when my essay on a rainy day earned me a gold star. Or in 8th grade when, as my English teacher handed me back my essay on personal sketch, she quietly remarked, ‘Samar, you are a wonderful writer’. Or in 11th when my reference-to-context assignment on Abraham Lincoln’s speech was shown to the entire class as sample for how it should be done.
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My inspiration to write often, if not always, arrives in academic settings. Back in college, I would have the most profound thoughts for writing during literature and criticism lectures. Once I started working full-time, writing for leisure became a distant memory. When I returned for a second masters, my writing came back with it as I sat through lectures on social psychology.
Recently I enrolled for a professional copyediting certificate at NYU School of Professional Studies, and some of the classes really prompted me to write about everything I have learned about copyediting in my short career trajectory of six or so years. It also reminded me when and why I decided to make a passion for writing my career.
In many ways, my education has been the keeper of my writing. Each time I returned to a classroom, my words returned with me. And I guess with my recent academic endeavor, I am hoping to reclaim the part of myself that has always known, since that third-grade gold star, that writing is not just what I do, but who I am.
