So here goes. I don't know if the everyday busy-ness of my life will allow me to write something everyday. I don't even know if I will go public or anonymous with this challenge, but I am glad I'm doing this.
My identity as a writer truly began in 8th grade. I owe it all to my best friend at that time - Riya. Until then, I was only interested in reading comic books. Writing was something I considered a chore. But Riya changed that for me. She and I sat next to each other in the middle of a long wooden bench. There were 2 more girls on our bench, but we had the coveted space right in the middle. In my school all the boys sat on the left of the classroom and the girls sat on the right. We had the most boring teachers for Math, Physics Geography and Tamil and so, instead of reading our textbooks in class we would read and re-read storybooks. Since chapter books are easier to camouflage under a textbook than comic books, I began to read those. And boy, did I fall in love! Anytime we had writing work to do, we’d rush through it and then Riya and I would write stories that we would read out to each other. We both began diary writing around then too!
My identity as a writer truly began in 8th grade. I owe it all to my best friend at that time - Riya. Until then, I was only interested in reading comic books. Writing was something I considered a chore. But Riya changed that for me. She and I sat next to each other in the middle of a long wooden bench. There were 2 more girls on our bench, but we had the coveted space right in the middle. In my school all the boys sat on the left of the classroom and the girls sat on the right. We had the most boring teachers for Math, Physics Geography and Tamil and so, instead of reading our textbooks in class we would read and re-read storybooks. Since chapter books are easier to camouflage under a textbook than comic books, I began to read those. And boy, did I fall in love! Anytime we had writing work to do, we’d rush through it and then Riya and I would write stories that we would read out to each other. We both began diary writing around then too!
I’d be embarrassed to share some of the stories and diary entries we wrote back then, and as a teacher now, I’m appalled that none of my teachers caught us being so sneaky! But I’m happy for that time. Riya moved away from our little town after 8th grade. But we continued to write long, elaborate letters full of descriptive language to each other!
Riya went on to study dentistry while I studied English literature and communication. Somehow studying literature ruined my love for reading. But I still loved writing. In college, I made new friends. My best friend in college Roxie was a great writer too! I’d recognise her curly, confident penmanship anywhere! We loved our creative writing classes together. I felt like I’d found my kindred spirit! I remember once our professor gave us a few words as a prompt and had us write a poem. Mine and Roxie’s were so eerily similar you would have thought they were copied! Fortunately, we were sitting beside each other, in the first row, right under the professor’s nose!!
After that, for a long time, I kept my writing to journaling. When blogs became popular in 2007 I began writing this blog. If you go through the archives, you will see how I’ve grown from an immature writer, trying to figure out this whole blogging thing, to a new mother who considered becoming a mommy blogger, and the to someone who pretty much gave up blogging. I mostly gave up blogging because I was finding it hard to find the balance between being authentic and sharing my life with the whole world.
This 50 day challenge is an attempt to revive my identity as a writer. At this point I am not committing to anything. I just want to get back to writing, and I hope I find that balance!
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