A Timeline of Writing

My expectations for the first day of my Teaching of Writing class were immediately shattered with the reality of several ice breaker exercises in which I got to talk to several of my new classmates. I learned a few names, and even met someone who was from the same town as me (it’s a small world after all!) But the most surprising moment was when large white pieces of paper began to be passed around the room. I dreaded what would come next. I figured this was going to be some kind of artistic assignment, my suspicions confirmed when Dr. Geller produced several boxes of crayons and colored markers. My heart sank. The assignment was to come up with a timeline of the history of writing in our lives. This could be anything, from experiences we had in school, at home, with friends, at any time in our lives. I really do not like to draw, predominantly because I’m not very good at it. Writers block (or I suppose artists block in this case,) ensued immediately. I felt nervous and shy, and didn’t particularly want to open up in front of a room of total strangers . But this trepidation slowly made way to a steady stream of ideas. Before I first put marker to paper, I vowed to myself to just draw, not judge what I would produce, and after a few minutes, I created the timeline you see above.

For me, writing has always been closely linked to reading. Teachers have always had a big impact on me, and I’ve been very fortunate to have several English teachers who have stood as role models to me throughout my years growing up. In middle school, I had a teacher who pushed us as a class when it came to English. We grappled with texts that looking back, were quite challenging. But I loved every second of it, and really threw myself into the work. I was told by this teacher to “never stop writing,” and it really made an impression on me. I never forgot this, and years later, I feel like I’ve honored their request.

High school left me very uncertain as to what I wanted to do with my life and where I wanted to go. I enjoyed my time at high school, made a lot of friends, read a lot, but there was always that looming uncertainty. I could see myself being happy doing a lot of different things, and I didn’t really have as much guidance as I would have liked. I enrolled at St. John’s University as an English major, with the idea that I would be studying something that I loved, and I’d find my way in terms of career along the way.

In my freshman semester I was lucky enough to have a First Year Writing class with Professor Roseanne Gatto. In the class, we were tasked with writing an assignment, 15 single spaced pages on an event in our lives that is important to us. We got to workshop parts of our papers in class, and through this, I got to hear the stories of so many different people. Happy stories, sad ones, ones of triumph, and of grief. It is one of the most memorable experiences I’ve had in school, and it is part of the reason I am where I am today.

Being an English major as I’ve drawn is a lot of reading and writing and writing and reading and reading and writing…you get the picture. But amongst all of that, there is the opportunity to find your voice, express yourself, interact with and learn from really creative people every day, and tackle real world issue and think critically about the ways that we think, live, and interact with each other.

Looking back on my timeline, I perhaps shouldn’t have placed an end marker on it. My life in terms of writing is still being written, and I hope that this class will help me extend this timeline even further, and add some new things along the way.