Getting Back in the Groove
I submitted my first writing assignment in 5 years this morning. Naturally, I have been obsessively checking for the grade all day.
I enrolled in community college for the Spring 2025 semester to begin my pursuit of an Associate in Journalism & New Media Studies. I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Anthropology in 2019 and snagged a very stable and secure job right before the world fell apart in the dark times we so fondly look back on. (For the record, it was and still is not lost on me how fortunate I was to keep my job throughout that mess, and receive TWO bonuses. Some good companies still exist in corporate America, believe it or not).
Anyway, the writing assignment had a simple task: Writing Profile. In short, write about your history and experience with writing. Minimum 600 words. I wrote around 1000. Since I submitted my final product this morning I have gone back and forth with being proud of what I wrote and being my own harshest critic. Something I touched on, actually, in said assignment. My lack of confidence in my own writing, my shyness and how generally most of my writing (outside school assignments) has been anonymous or kept in personal journals.
I don't know why I am stressing about this particular assignment. Its not as if it will be “wrong”. It was a very personal prompt, in my opinion. I can't really be wrong about my recollection of my own life. I suppose it could be marked wrong for grammatical mistakes or other such errors. Those don't bother me though. Its the potential critique of the content that stresses me out.
This is all part of my process though. This is exactly the sort of thing I am hoping to overcome as I progress through this course and this degree. I want to become confident in what I write and put it out into the world.
Penny.