As silly as it would be for a dog to type, it was laughable that I ever could. At age 8 with no way to communicate, someone had left the door open at school to a typing class and I saw it. I was told I was too young for the class because you had to be 12. I was not waiting 4 years to be able to express myself. So for weeks I refused to do anything until they let me take the class. Thinking I would give up after a few days they finally let me in. My speed what an issue, but to me, every key I pressed was one more that I couldn't press before. For months I did every typing exercise I was given. 3 words a minute was better than none at all in my mind.
Finally the day came when I was told to write the first thing that came into my head. At that age I didn't know what a poem was, but I had some interesting thoughts in my head with words that sounded cool together. So with no clue what a rhyme even was, I just wrote the first thing I thought of as I was instructed. Total shock came over the teacher because I was a naturally gifted writer. That was hard for me to deal with because I couldn't even grasp what the big deal was. My poem made the school paper.
Because of me, the typing class dropped the age requirement and actually made typing a requirement for all disabled kids. As for me, people wanted to publish everything I wrote but I wouldn't allow it. My writing scared me because I didn't understand where it came from. I was scared that I would wake up one day and have nothing left to write. Finally at age 16, Pastor Craig Carlson twisted my arm really really hard to write for his newsletter. That was my start.
Then in high school they had a State poetry contest. It was a class thing, so every class in the school was part of it. It was really cool because it was a one week event and the writing atmosphere was set up for us. I was in my glory! I ignored the contest and just did it because I totally enjoyed it. The best poems in the State would be published in a book. I was in shock because if I remember right, 4 out of 5 of my poems made the book which was really unusual. But more than that, I made the newspaper. This happened 3 years in a row. I ended up having my own book of writings published. I hated my own book because I had made 2 piles, a garbage writing pile, and a pile for the book. Um, they put the garbage pile in the book.
My writing has only improved over the years and I get published a lot. I've even been published outside of the Country. I was a reporter for a few newspapers but didn't like it. I'm bad at interviewing and making a news story. I can do it, but hate it! My dream is to have an advice column, but I have no clue how to get that going.
So, this section of my site is my own writings. I try to write daily on my facebook page. I just love writing. The menu on the left will bring up unpublished stuff that I have written.
The Salt Shaker is a monthly newsletter I write for.
