Where It All Began-

This is the story of how creative writing led me to digital media. I took a creative writing class in high school during my sophomore year. I took the class because my friend who wanted to be a writer suggested it. We had a lot of interesting assignments like one person starting a story, then passing the story behind you, and following up where the first person left off. It was usually light-hearted and fun writing until this week when we started to write more seriously, meaning more length, stronger topics, and solo writing. 

A Surprising Assignment Lead To An Emotional Day-

My most vivid memory of writing was this one assignment to write about something emotional, with the intent to make the reader feel emotional. It was not hard for me to think of what I should write about as my mom was born deaf, and I know that not many people consider what that might be like. So, I wrote about how great a mom she is and how I have to be her voice wherever we go. I remember feeling really embarrassed when I actually submitted it, but I didn’t have any time to write something new. I turned it in and just hoped that other students had some similarly emotional stories. Thankfully, they did.

The Realization That Led To My Degree

 I was relieved to read so many deep stories by the end of class, and everyone in that class became like a friend group after that day. Thinking back now, I know I talked to a lot more people after that day outside of class than I had before reading each other’s stories. That was the most intense writing I ever did. The teacher pulled me aside after class to tell me about her emotional response to it. She also had no idea I had a deaf mom, so she was surprised to find that out in my writing out of the blue like that. 

That’s when I found my love for writing because I realized it’s easier to say the things that I don’t find easy to say out loud through writing. This translates into my love for digital media because it focuses so much on the best way to “say” something, or the best way to “tell a story” it’s just also about which media would be best to represent the story-like text, graphics, websites, or video.