Words fail me Writing
If, back at my high school graduation, you had asked me what career I desired, I would have said that of a writer. (Well, to be honest, I doubt if I would have shared that ambition with many people. I probably would have lied and said "computer programmer .") 'Twas a dream that never did see the light of day, yet I can't really say that it's totally dead. (As my verbosity on this website would attest.)I discovered in my sophmore year that I had a small talent in stringing words together. All my years of reading had obviously paid off, and when I started getting compliments (and laughs) for my work, I started to think about being a professional wordsmit h. If I had actually spent that time writing, my career might have gone somewhere. The reality was, alas, that writing was hard work and while I could feverishly scribble down a joke or a handful of paragraphs, putting forth the effort required to finish and polish a story or article was beyond me.
It's not that I didn't have fun trying. I managed to type up a mess of foolishness in high school -- for classes and in my own spare time. I had a year off after that, due to my failure to plan for college, and dutifully wrote down notes and kept a log of the time spent writing. (Precious little, if you want to know.) As summer approached and I applied to the local community college out of sheer boredom, I dashed off a short story in a panic and offered it to a magazine called Fantasy Book. Their rejection letter was short and polite.
I continued to daydream about writing while taking classes at the College of DuPage, keeping the dust off the typewriter with the occasional burst of creativity and by writing letters . Ironically, it was through college that I made my only professional " sale." I was intrigued by a course named "Writing for Media," listed in the college catalogue. In order to qualify for that course I took the introductory course for the Media Technology program. After a few weeks I was hooked and changed my major, such a s it was. I ended up with a two year degree and during my brief foray in the world of freelance audio-visual production, I managed to write a script for a slide program.
As my life wore on, the joys and trials of adulthood pretty much took up my writing time. I started to recognize the necessity of hard work in the field of writing and the limits of my talent and ambition. Today, I still welcome the chance to put words on paper -- be it through typing up procedures at work, projects for church, writing letters, or just goofing off at home. As I mentioned above, I also keep a hand in with this website and upon rare occasion I contibute to group stories on the 'net. (There's a tale at Unearthed Ruminations, if you dare to see it.) The daydreams of cashing royalty checks and appearing on talk shows have faded, but I still nurture a secret hope that one day a story or something might "pop out" and I can see my words in print or hear them spoken on the screen. But then I still sometimes fantasize about running for president....
Back to Nostalgia.updated 7/27/2001