Su Yeon Kim/Writing Experience (wk2)/Thursday 1-3pm

 201500568 Su Yeon Kim 

 

  Writing has always been an important and meaningful experience for me. I remember my earliest frustrations and also my few proudest moments regarding writing. I started writing since I was about ten years old and in the beginning I had absolutely no idea what it was and had zero interest in it. My mother was indirectly the first person to introduce me to the concept of writing. What had happened was that as a young child I loved to explore every nook and cranny of the house for some sort of hidden treasure (I was a rather imaginative child). One day I happened to stumble across my mother's journal and the journal was from the year 1996, which is the year I was born. So I had decided to read the entry about the day I was born. I don't remember the contents of the entry but the feeling I had in the moment is unforgettable. My mother had been putting down on paper some of her best memories and it could be relived over and over not just by her but by anyone who read it. Although it was an entry about something I could not possibly remember, I felt as though I was there next to my mother that day.

  Also, before texting became a thing, giving notes back and forth in class with friends was the optimum communication method. My best friend and I took that to a different level and wrote letters to each other despite the fact we saw each other every day. However, as fun as this was, it was the first time I got frustrated with writing because my friend could express her thoughts so eloquently whereas I could not. My mother could see how I was struggling to write a simple letter and decided to show me some of her personal letters. These letters were from my grandfather, my mother's friends and my dad. All letters had different styles and feelings, for example, my father's letter was very concise and somewhat brisk, much like himself. In that moment I realized that writing was a form of self-expression. Writing anything after that got a bit easier because I knew that no one could judge me for the content of my writing. Academically of course, there was a criteria I had to follow and fulfill, for instance, cohesion in writing. However, these were things that could be learned unlike my feelings and ideas which only I can develop according to how I perceive the world around me.

  Unfortunately, I had lost interest in writing somewhere along the way in my first 12 years of education. Writing became merely another subject in school and I always only did the bare minimum. I was not motivated enough to put in the extra effort to be innovative and expressive with my writing because whenever any attempt failed miserably. However, about two years ago I was inspired yet again to write and have since stayed inspired. The source of my inspiration cannot be directed to one person or thing in particular but everything in that instance. In the beginning of my first semester in university I was overwhelmed by how many different kinds of people existed outside the fixed classroom I had been in all throughout high school. Upon seeing this I finally decided to find myself, discover what I truly value and be able to voice my opinions on them. I once again felt frustration for not being able to write flawlessly and more so when it was related to a topic that mattered to me. I realize that writing like everything else takes time and consistent practice but at times my frustration and dissatisfaction gets the better of me. Nonetheless, I'm glad to have taken interest in writing once more because it provokes me to take time to really think and learn about whatever I write. I feel I learn something new every time I write. Undoubtedly, I am still far from being a decent writer because I still encounter countless difficulties but this gives me the motivation I require to both enhance my writing skills and better myself as a person.