Here we are again, two days late, at the end of the road for Two Writing Teachers’ “Slice of Life Challenge”.

#agoodthingornot

I’m not sure. I have a few positive and negative takeaways from my own writing (not their challenge; this is and always will be awesome).

My positive thoughts:

  1. I’ll have written for over half the month, a step in the right direction. I know my schedule change has changed my writing, but there are other things that are making it harder to write, and many of them are in my own head. I’ve said this before: The content is there. I’m a sixth-grade teacher, so there are ALWAYS stories to be told. More than anything else, it’s just finding the time to tell those stories, which is the biggest hangup. Me, it’s my big old noggin getting in the way of storytelling.
  2. I do feel like I have a voice again. I went through a period of writing where I just felt like “why do I do this, no one cares about my story”. This year’s writing has helped me to realize that if one person can gain from my words, then I’m successful.
  3. I do enjoy this “work”. Some days, I wish this was my work: just being able to get up, get ready, and find the needed words to help my sense of life or politics or anything really. However, just to be able to write about basketball, sixth grade, my wife, my daughters, or some other silly nonsense does bring me joy. If I can continue to find the way I have for these days in March, this blog (and this writer) will be all right. If I cannot, I’ll still be all right; I just won’t be a writer anymore! 🙂

The “junk thoughts” (as a retired friend of mine called them for years):

  1. I NEED a time to write, and every time I’d miss a day, I’d think, “and this is why you are not a writer, you missed another day!”. Who thinks ignorant things like this? Oh, THIS GUY! I mean no kids at home, no running them around, not much happening on a day to day basis.
  2. The words are there. The website is there. I just get into my own head WAY too much, especially over the last few years. My writing quality is staying pretty much the same, I just allow so much bullcrap to dictate what I’m doing. Yesterday, I had this started and had ideas on what to write, but then my day went to absolute hell, and it was hard to dig out of it. I spent the night not grading papers, not working on lessons, not writing, but playing games. *sigh*
  3. I tend to have a tough time letting go of things as well. Crappy writing time three month ago? That I can remember clear as day. The things my wife needed me to get from the store? It’s like she never talked to me. Again, (seeing a pattern here), I overthink, get into my own head, and cause HUGE problems.

Anyway, I’m glad I participated in the Challenge, even if I wasn’t as active as I thought I could be. I did write more this year than last, which is a good sign. And while I’m missing some of my connections, I know that there are amazing writers who are out there, doing great things, both with their own writing and for the writing of their students.

And that, my friends, makes my heart happy! 🙂