Literacy Narrative:
'More than Just words'
It’s sort of a strange feeling putting ideas and emotions into words. Even stranger when those words are written on paper or typed on a laptop. Strange in the sense that intense emotions, ideas that come to you in a moment or ideas that are well constructed seem to have more meaning when they are written down. At least that’s how I feel about writing.
My early memories of writing are almost the only ones I have of my schooling days, mainly because writing was the only thing I took a real interest in. I had a passion for writing and I wasn’t too concerned if my teachers couldn’t understand my quirky storylines about being a ‘Dragon Ball Z’ character. Writing gave me solace. It meant I had the freedom to be whoever I wanted to be, talk about anything I felt like. Lucky for me the marking criteria for year 5’s aren’t too intense for creative writing. I remember finding it relatively easy putting words on paper. When I was 11 I had been wrongly accused for stealing a classmate’s lunch. My parents were called in to school for a meeting with my teacher. I remember telling my mother that I was too ‘scared’ to talk out loud in front of them. “Write it down” she said. A detailed letter explaining what truly happened and how I felt being the victim of a lie meant that everything was sorted out. I have always been very opinionated so that probably helped the fact that I had plenty to contribute to a blank page. It was more of an insult when paper was clean white at the start rather than a challenge.
College was a shock to the system. All of a sudden my creative freedom was in a boxing ring against strict guidelines. “You haven’t elaborated on that topic”, “Where’s the supporting evidence?”, “How did you reach this conclusion?” Oh how statements like this tested my resolve. I still wanted to write things my way…not in the ‘NCEA’ way. My unconditional love for writing ended up being my downfall. I found myself dreading...