Going Back To The Early Days Of My Writing Career … Like 1991

In my daredevil exploits of sorting and cleaning every room of our house and gathering things for a yard sale, I’ve come across some pretty interesting things. I learned that I will never have to buy another safety pin, ever. I learned that I have more old Christmas cards than I realized, so I’ll be up-cycling them for years to come. And I learned that I have always loved to write. This folder from the Young Writers’ Conference my eighth grade year was a surprise and very enlightening. Plus, on the back of the bookmark is the best quote ever:

“To do is to be.” - Socrates

“To be is to do.” - Plato

“Do be do be do.” - Sinatra

 

I honestly don’t remember writing this story about a little boy who learned two very important lessons from his mischievousness and disobedience. My 13-year-old brain created a 4-year-old boy who had authority issues, destructive tendencies and a knack for doing the worst things at the worst moments. He did learn his lessons from the school of hard knocks, but not before shaving the cat’s hear, tripping the mailman and partially tearing down the backyard fence. I’ll leave you to read the juicy details in these two pictures.

I wish I could go back and take the special sessions and workshops they offered that year. “Easy Reading is Hard Writing.” “Songs: Writing in the Third Dimension.” “Is There a Shakespeare in Your Midst?” Don’t they sound fascinating? What I do remember is having several copies of my story and passing them out in a sharing session. I was scared out of my mind and so worried they wouldn’t like it. And since I didn’t shred the evidence of ever writing it, it must not have been too big a flop! And so, I kept on writing. The rest is creative history.