Haleigh Hutcheson - Journal1

        Writing was never a privilege or an option to me; but rather, an expectation. At the private school I attended for thirteen years, no other subject was given more emphasis than the English classes. I was expected to write five page papers at the age of twelve, and this only increased when entering high school. The amount of English and writing assignments I was forced to do made me resent writing when I was younger. As I grew older, I noticed that these assignments became easier, but they were still a chore. The basics of writing had been drilled into me, and once I knew the basics, I was able to focus on the topic I was writing about, rather than the manner in which I was writing. This lessened the negative relationship I had developed with writing; however, I still looked at it as work rather than something fun to do.

  The emphasis placed on writing at my school culminated into my senior year, where I was assigned a minimum 50-page thesis on the topic of my choice, and which I had to successfully defend in front of a panel of judges in order to graduate. Once again, I found myself resenting the though of this daunting task; however, as I began the writing process, I actually found myself enjoying it. The English classes I had taken were so vigorous, they helped me to thrive with this assignment and lead me to write a 90 page thesis about how the lateralization and specialization in the human brain allow left handed people to tend to be more creative than right handed people. This thesis made me enjoy writing, and helped me understand how writing can be more than work, it can be a huge accomplishment. The thesis also allowed me to understand that there is always room for improvement, and that teachers criticize the writing to help you, as the writer. Plainly put, my positive relationship with writing didn’t truly form until I was forced to write the biggest paper of my life, something that I never thought I could do, and that lead me to appreciate the writing process.

  Unlike my relationship with writing, I always enjoyed reading. My mother had me reading books as soon as possible; she would have me do my schoolwork readings, as well as a chapter from a book of her choosing every night before I went to bed. Through this, I ended up enjoying the reading process, and continued to read for fun over the years in addition to my assigned readings from school. In school, I found readings such as The Tempest by William Shakespeare and The Life of Pi by Yann Martel particularly entertaining, while outside of school I enjoyed more dramatic novels such as Misery by Steven King and, of course, the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. I read a fair amount of books over the years, but I still wish I had more time to read.