Am I not destined to become a writer?
That question has always haunted me ever for 2 years. The reason? I know that writers’ write, but somehow, I could seldom connect with that notion. My excuse was for focus on academic achievements, but looking back, I realized that I had more-than-adequate time for writing. Thus, am I really serious about becoming a writer, or the idea was just far-fetched?
Fortunately for me, my new school, St. Joseph’s Institution International (drop the “International” and you have my old school’s name), offered a form of salvation in an extracurricular activity (ECA): Creative Writing (English).
When I entered the first session, however, it seemed that my hope of discovering my inner writing spirit was infinitesimal: the ECA had double the usual number of students, which could mean less attention (and hence, less chance to grow). Other than that, the participants were divided into two factions: the old people, who had participated in the ECA since its conception last year, and the new people, who are participating for the first time. Certainly the ‘oldies’ would simply take all the attention from the supervising teacher, Ms Pauline Bull, leaving the ‘newbies’ unattended. Those reasons made me wonder: should I just leave this ECA, take a different one, and forget my ambition to become a world-class author, or should I just stay and see whether it will benefit me? I opted for the latter, and thankfully, I made the right choice, at least for now.
As Ms Bull was unavailable (she told us she was going somewhere, but I forgot her destination), many of the participants didn’t show up, except for about 6 people, including me. It turned out to be one of the most memorable moments of my life. We talked a lot about our favourite authors, and discussed the techniques and writing styles they utilised to make their works more appealing and intriguing to the readers. We also discussed about the writer’s block, an enemy to all writers, and the ways to overcome it in order to continue writing. There were also talks about the means to get new ideas, or to brainstorm. It was such a fun and lively discussion that we almost forgot that the session was supposed to end.
One of the things I learned from that session was to continue writing your ideas, regardless of whether we could finish our works. I also learned to store any idea that comes into my mind, lest it would vanish as quick as it comes. But the most important lesson was to never give up, and so, I think I could stick a little while longer. Destiny will eventually reveal to me whether Creative Writing (English) is the answer to my dilemma. Until then, writing goes on…
