I went into science so I wouldn't have to write

I hated English classes in high school, actually I didn't like many of my classes in high school, except photography and math. I struggled with the whole symbolism within the writing thing. Why can't it just mean what it says? An irony of my senior year was that I took lots of journalism classes to meet college entrance requirements and I never wrote a single word, not for the entire school year. I took photos for the school paper and the yearbook, they were very good, but I still never wrote a word.

When I got into college I was very resistant towards any English or writing classes. It took me three tries to pass freshman English. I went into science so I wouldn't have to do any writing. Why didn't anyone tell me this plan was so seriously flawed!?! I took a year off from college to go to Indonesia to teach English, the understanding was that I would be teaching conversation and discussion classes. Imagine my surprise when they asked me to teach a writing class. I think that may have been the turning point in my ability to write. It was after I returned from Indonesia that I finally passed freshman English.

Over the last couple of years I think my writing has really improved. I still don't keep a journal and those free association writing exercises used to annoy the heck out me back in the day. I guess I am journaling, blogging has to be a type of journaling, I guess. I try to write the way I speak, for the most part. I think it makes it more interesting. My technical writing is pretty ok. I subscribe to the less is more school of thought. Who knew I'd finally come around and bond with the written word.