Growing up I despised writing. In elementary school I hated the seemingly pointless and time-consuming progression of sentences to paragraphs and eventually essays. I especially disliked creative writing, as I prided myself on living in the real world and not being the type of child to run around pretending to be a horse at recess.

     In fifth grade I got my first email address. I remember my dad teaching me email etiquette. As a healthcare worker, he had strong opinions about how emails should be structured for clarity. His favorite strategy was bullet points. He described them as the most concise way to get to the point without miscommunication. I began taking notes and organizing thoughts and essays in bullet point form which fed my annoyance of writing a sentence. 

     My developing no-nonsense bullet point writing style and my irritation with imaginative writing was further reinforced in eighth grade when I submitted two poems in a poetry unit. One I worked for an hour and used carefully planned description. The other I completed in five minutes and submitted without correcting. The first poem scored a whole letter grade below the second one. This solidified my notion that I was not destined for creative writing or writing at all. Because of this, I never felt confident enough to take an AP English class in high school.

     In high school, I was successful in regular English classes because of my ability to regurgitate the concepts teachers emphasized in class. Despite having what I believed were subpar experiences with writing, I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed the freedom and control I had with my first-year writing course amidst a challenging freshman year. There, I was also shocked to find that I enjoyed reading and editing writers’ work during peer review. My biggest barrier to this and my own writing is and was my tendency to procrastinate and, as a result of that, the struggle to submit polished work. 

     When I was younger, I assumed creativity was writing about fantasy lands. Now, I value and recognize the importance of creative word choice and format that caters to different audiences. By being creative in the presentation and style (not using exclusively bullet points), I am more likely to connect with others and communicate my message.  This past November, while working in a long-term care home for residents with traumatic brain injuries, some of the residents tested positive for COVID-19. The miscommunications happening within the company created problems with policies, PPE, and safety for both residents and staff. To create change, and to alter people’s attitudes in this situation, writing became imperative. Having writing skills allowed me to find a balance in my emails between unoffensive credibility and subtlety calling out my boss to fix or improve a dangerous situation. 

     I write for clarity and to make changes. Clear communication is powerful, and writing is a means for change.