For me, I have always had a love/hate relationship with writing. In high school, I never really was a fan of writing assignments or even writing a 500 word essay for an English exam. They were the bane of my existence, mostly due to the fact that we always wrote for a grade and never to learn. We would be asked to jot down a few paragraphs at the beginning of class about Hamlet, but what did that do if we were going to talk about the play anyways? When would I even use Hamlet after high school if I was planning on a different path than English? These were the questions that I would ask, but then after a couple years, I would become a little bit wiser.
It was during my senior year of high school that I actually enjoyed writing—although it mostly pertained to myself. That was the year that I had a lot going on in my personal life, and I seemed to lose sight of why I wanted to break the many cycles that I grew up in. Somehow I pulled myself together when applying to colleges and we were asked to write essays about ourselves and why we want to be there. Most people I knew dreaded writing about themselves because they feel like nothing about their story is unique or that they haven’t done things that they felt were “meaningful,” but for me it was a piece of cake. I have oodles of stories, and I know that they are important to who we are. In the wise words of Thomas King, “The truth about stories is that’s all we are.” Now, I love to write and love to tell my stories in a creative way (creative nonfiction is my FAVORITE genre!).
These days, writing for me enhances my writing in the fact that it slows down my thinking. Writing itself is a slower process than speaking or listening, as it probably took me a few minutes to write out this post. As I write, I have to think about every letter on the keyboard and which one to go to next, while thinking about my ideas coming up, and how I want to synthesize that with what I already know. A lot goes on, but it gives me more time to sit on it and think critically on what I really want to say.
As a student, I like to take notes in a more time-consuming process than other people. For me to learn, I have to take notes before the lecture. Strange, I know, but it helps because if I go into class with all of the information on the slides, all I have to do is listen to the professor and add in the things they say outside of the slides. With the extra information, it usually is helpful in synthesizing what I “learned” in writing the slides down beforehand. Then after, I physically write down my notes, and to keep my attention when making them, I color code different sections and use stickers. Somehow through trying to be attentive to what I am writing, and it helps me learn the material better!
Autumn's Theories of Writing Blog 
For me as well, writing enhances my learning also because it slows my thinking down. I feel like sometimes, you can almost think too fast and then what you are thinking about is not really retained. But when you write it down, like you said, it is much slower giving the brain a chance to actually process the information making it easier to remember and recall. While I do not typically take notes before the lecture, unless they are notes on the readings before the class, I also find a lot of value in taking notes and writing down what the professor says as well as what is on the slides. My problem then becomes I have written the notes so quickly that they are hard to read. So, I often go back and re-write the notes afterward so I can more easily read them. That is how I stay attentive to what I am writing to help me better learn. As kind of a side note, I think it is interesting that you disliked academic writing but liked personal, creative nonfiction writing because I am completely the opposite. I have no issue and in high school had no issue writing English papers or papers for other classes but when it comes to writing about myself, I can’t.
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Your narrative reminded me of how often people believe that they do not like writing or are not good at writing before they realize how flexible and open-ended writing can be. Your discovery of creative non-fiction incited your passion, as I’m sure it has for other people. In school we are only really taught about one type of writing, with some poetry thrown in there maybe, but there are so many genres of writing that are not explored. I wonder what impact it would have if all of the genres of writing were explored more in-depth say in high school. I think more people would realize the treasures that writing can hold for them in whatever unique way they would like to take part.
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I really liked your piece that you shared above. I found the title to be super creative and pretty relatable to say the least. I also found it more relatable when you were considering the necessity for various reading that were mandated by our professors and teachers to read. One that I found the most relatable was Hamlet. I never thought I would engage in a writing minor and also found no purpose reading things written by professional writers like Shakespeare and others. Something that you touched on that showed your love for writing was similar to my thoughts. Writing literally does slow down your thoughts!!. It gives you an opportunity to pause and contemplate about the present feelings rather than worrying about future.
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