Writing class provides opportunity for independent thought

Photo+illustration.

Dawson Kelley

Photo illustration.

Story by Lois Lefors, staff writer

The world is filled with multitudes of distinctly different varieties of writers. There are poetry enthusiasts and novelists, short story composers and journalists. Each kind of writer possesses different skill sets necessary to adequately carry out the passions they pursue. Creative writing, specifically, allows one to let loose their imagination and write without boundaries. Amid the seemingly endless amount of essays and research papers assigned throughout high school, enrolling in a creative writing class this year allowed me to both embrace and exploit my writing from a new and entirely unrestricted perspective.

At first, my decision to join Mrs. Henderson’s creative writing class was based solely upon my desire to switch out of one class and into another.  As I glimpsed over my choices for 5th period classes, none of the options seemed particularly alluring. There was a variety of options ranging from oddly specific science courses to PE. Creative writing was the only class that I could possibly enjoy. I was skeptical, given it was merely a regular class, but it definitely outshone all other alternatives.

As weeks went by, I discovered, to my surprise, that I was really enjoying my time in the class. I found myself looking forward to 5th period, a place where I could zip up all of my textbooks, binders and study materials within the confines of my backpack and take 50 whole minutes to focus on something I genuinely enjoyed.

It was wonderful. Every day we were given vague prompts intended to spark creativity. With prompts in mind, we would get out our black spiral notebooks, press our pens to paper and step into a world of our very own creation. One could hear the sound of every pen and pencil in the room softly and rhythmically pulling across sheets of paper; no one was in a mad frenzy to finish, we simply took our time. Every so often there would be momentary pauses when eyes would stare off into the distance pensively before returning to the paper in front of them. We all went on writing like this until five minutes before the bell, when we had a chance to share our writing with the class.

It was in that classroom that I discovered my love for writing poetry. I had always known that I liked to write, but I never really found the time to do it as much as I would have liked. In creative writing, I was given the time. I filled up that black spiral with poetry and short stories and dialogues. Creative writing was a class that reminded me how much I love I write, it reminded me that my writing doesn’t have to be confined to a number in a grade book. My 5th period has allowed me to unveil an outlet for my creativity, and though I am saddened that my year in the course in almost over, I will never forget the truths that were revealed to me this year in my creative writing class.