I wouldn't have identified myself as a writer twenty years ago, even though I now realize I've always written. I've journaled most of my life; it's how I figure out my world. As a child I wrote poems and stories and plays. As a teenager I started a nearly archaic habit of writing letters to friends, hundreds of them over the years. But I never thought all those words on the page counted as real writing.
But the writing habit became a path for figuring out myself. Way past my college days I started taking classes with assignments and deadlines and critique groups. At the same time I changed jobs and started teaching in a school that challenged everything I thought I knew about education. The educational exploration and the writing practice collided and I realized I had a story to tell.
We all do.
Some tell their story through art, music, dance, or film. Some live their stories and we are inspired by them, or grieved by them. I see stories everywhere. Unique, worthy, often overlooked tales of being human. We become better people when we learn the stories of others, when we listen or read well.
My hope is to use the pen to craft stories that make us pay attention, that nudge us towards compassion.
Thank you for taking this journey with me.