From My Mind to....

A Journey Years in the Making

I read "Life's Writing Seasons" , today's entry from Charity Marie - <3's Blog. Her blog got me thinking about how my writing journey has developed. Perhaps those seasons DO exist.

Until High School, my writing efforts consisted of the minimum to get by in the classroom and homework. I was an average student, and didn't do much to improve that status. Until High School. I discovered Social Studies, AKA History. I developed a penchant for research and writing papers. Not exactly the stories, essays and poems which 'litter' my Port today. But I did begin getting A's on my research papers, which translated to A's in History. Too bad math didn't allow long-hand papers for homework.

The discovery of writing for myself didn't happen until my fifth year of college. Yep, took me five years ... well, nine semesters actually. I changed my major three times my freshman year, starting out as a Geology major (one department, one advisor). But for some reason they required Calculus. I barely survived Algebra--I was not math oriented. So, I switched to Architecture (a new advisor with another department). That didn't work out either, finally switching to History with a minor in Political Science (a third advisor in a third department). I figured my research abilities would hold me in good stead here.

Unfortunately, all that department AND course changing resulted in me missing the required Freshman English course. I had signed up for a course in Interpersonal Communications, which I thought would satisfy the English requirement. Years later when the powers that be reviewed my transcript for graduation purposes, they discovered the missing course. I tried to take a summer English course, but it had been filled.

I decided to work over the Fall Semester and take English in the Spring. That decision sparked a change in my life that would set me on an entirely new direction in life (and a story for another time). And the English course I took also ignited the passion I still hold for writing.

That course was essentially a guide to writing essays. Google the types of essays and you'll find at least a dozen varieties of essays; argumentative, narrative, expository and opinion essays were a few of the styles taught in my class. I still enjoy writing (and reviewing) essays today.

Graduating after that fifth year, I entered the US Army's Corps of Engineers and was sent to West Germany. I learned an entirely different style of writing--efficiency reports, terrain reports and memorandum writing. The Cold War standoff was in full swing with a still highly charged border between NATO forces and the OPFOR (Opposing Forces) of the East Germans and the Soviets in 1978. I loved my time in Europe. But writing took a back seat to photography for the next three years.

I took literally thousands of color slides, and prints of both black and white and color, for personal use and military duties. As a First Lieutenant and the Intelligence Officer (S2) for a divisional combat engineer battalion, I would take slides of the terrain where training exercises would take place and give terrain briefings to commander and platoon leaders in advance of the exercise. To save time, I learned how to develop both slides and prints, a talent I had to let go when I moved back to the states and started a family. One bathroom with four women in the household is not conducive to maintaining a darkroom. And that is about the same time the Army decided to cut such amenities and services for soldiers and families as darkrooms and woodshops.

After one such briefing on a divisional-level exercise, my battalion commander (Lieutenant Colonel) ▼

Rank (ascending order):
01-2nd Lieutenant
02-1st Lieutenant
03-Captain
04-Major
05-Lieutenant Colonel
06-Colonel
07-Brigadier General
08-Major General

invited the Division Commander (Major General) to watch my briefing. Apparently the general was so impressed he turned to his G2 Intelligence Officer (Colonel) and asked why he didn't give such briefings. I remember slinking down in my seat thinking I just embarrassed an officer four levels higher than I was. Fortunately, all turned out well.

A high point was selling an article to The Engineer Magazine about a particularly pertinent engineering topic while stationed there; however, my social writing was non-existent. I got out of the Army to begin my woodworking business in 1992, spending all my time growing my business. Writing took a back seat until 1998 when I moved the business out of my garage and into a commercial place. I began writing stories in earnest shortly after by writing early in the morning before I opened for business. That's how I discovered my creative period for writing was early morning. A number of the scrap pages I still keep came from these early days.

In the late 90's and early 00's, I started sharing stories with folks I found on sites such as Yahoo Messenger and AOL via email. Yahoo began a social site called 360 in 2005, which really increased my writing and exposure to others. But even that site was winding down after just a few years, encouraging me to find an alternate place to post.

That place was Writing.Com in 2008. To this day, I'm not sure why I never looked for other sites for my writing. But, I have never looked back since finding WDC; neither has my love for writing.

And so the journey continues....

889 Words
"The Bard's Hall Contest" 
Tagging: StephBee and Ẃeβ࿚Ẃỉtcĥ