I put on a bridal shower (along with many others) for my sister yesterday, and it went extremely well. The decorations were great, everyone had a fun time with the games, and the food was fabulous. I am the black sheep of our small family, and was the one to act out as a teenager. I made a lot of mistakes, and that girl I was 15 years ago, in only very small ways resembles the woman I am today. I still went into the planning with a desire to shatter the rebellious teenager image that hangs around my neck and screams, “I was a rebel and I am still the same screw up today.” I went into the event hoping for reinforcement of my maturity, and acknowledgement of the changes I have made to my personality. What I realised as I was writing today, was that I am the biggest contributor to the image. I am the one who is frequently trying to overcompensate for past behavior. I am the one that needs to accept who I was then as well as believe in who I am today. It is not up to other people to help me with this with reinforcement. It is up to me.
● About Me
I wrote and published my first blog post on May 26, 2009. I was about to turn 36 and had been accepted to Mount Holyoke College as a non-traditional student, on my way to completing a Bachelor of Arts in English with a minor in Medieval Studies. I had managed, finally, to know what general direction I was traveling. As a self proclaimed voracious reader I knew that I needed a vocation that would allow me to engage daily with words: reading words, writing words, and hearing words. I also needed to eat, so I navigated my way to a teaching position and I began to fine tune my craft. I love to teach and I love my students, but I also needed to continue to hone my own literary technique, voice, and style. I continued my education in order to delve deeper into literature, making connections, and most definitely, writing. I gained more confidence as a reader as well as a writer of both creative and analytical text. That first blog post in 2009 is short, the writing average, and the topic mundane, but as I continued to learn from other writers I began to understand that to become a better writer I needed to write more. Each time I write and release a poem, a post, or a story, I hone my skills. I invite you along for the ride, for this journey of mine as I attempt to wrangle a wealth of ideas and competing directions into an organized freshly paved path to publication. I might get distracted along the way, but sometimes those detours lead us to amazing views and new friends.
Laura Smith Writer 
Leave a comment