Bear with me on this one... for my first blog post.
I have always loved to write. not for anyone specific, or for school, but just for me. When I was little, my favorite part about going to my grandparents house because was an old fashioned typewriter. I would spend hours every day after school writing stories about my friends and thinking up new adventures. My imagination could run a mile a minute, and the stories never seemed to make sense. I never wrote for anyone, just for the simple joy of writing and I loved the idea of letting my imagination come to life on paper.
I have never been a very good writer, and I read at about an 8th grade level, but that has never stopped me. I am the kind of person who has ten journals lying around my floor because I can’t stop writing in them. I need to write down the thoughts in my head, because I’m scared that one day I will lose those memories. I write out my prayers, and deep conversations, I write our stories and dreams and arguments in my head. I write down services and ideas and qualities I see in people. Writing helps me sort it all out. It helps me to make sense of the thoughts and feelings and crazy imagination in my head.
In high school, I took a creative writing class called Expository writing. The idea of the class was to learn how to take your imagination, and those crazy stories and make them into something useful. We wrote screenplays and poems and essays on essays, but my favorite was inspiration projects. I think thats the most important part about writing, what inspires you. Looking back on my project, I talked about how I was inspired by the underdog. I talked about David and Goliath, and how I was the smallest kid on the water polo team and I talked about sports teams and kids I work with in the inner city. I still am inspired by the underdog, but I realize now where my daily inspiration comes from. Its not through the stories of the people, but rather the people themselves. Its seeing tiny traces of who Jesus is, in the people around me. In the people that I get to do life with, and the people who I just get a glimpse of. Its seeing the heart behind what they do and
the love and the interactions and the need for people in our lives. We’ve all heard that its never about getting something done, finishing a project, or a task, but rather the process it takes to do it. The journey not the destination. But what if the journey is all about the people you meet, the people you encounter on the way? The waiter serving your table, or the barista making your coffee. That person sitting next to you in class. They all have a story to tell, a need to be met, and a life someone thought was worth dying for. People are my inspiration to write. My inspiration to go to school far away, and to make something of my life. People are what make a place worth falling in love with. I want to be surrounded by people all the time, and to love and be loved by God’s greatest treasure. His people.
