Graphic created by Evan Brooks
There are some things in life, some habits or skills, that sound beneficial to obtain to help you grow as an individual. But those things, while they may sound great to learn, can at times be anything but exciting to do. Writing… is one of those things.
Knowing how to write is one of the most essential things you can learn to do. To write is to think; it is the ability to pass on knowledge and work through problems. We think by working things out in our mind and solidifying our knowledge by testing if we can pass it on to others. But where my vendetta with writing comes in is how tedious and otherwise dull it can be. Writing can burn you out as your creative thoughts run dry, forcing a need for a break to regain inspiration.
The key to writing an otherwise excessive amount of work and not burning out is to have fun with it. Ensure that your topics and lessons are things that you enjoy to talk and think about and, above all, don’t write on a topic that bores you. If you are bored writing a paper, the reader will be bored reading your paper.
I think it is also important to put out there that having a vendetta with something is not necessarily a bad thing. Holding that sort of grudge means you have interest in that skill, and nothing worth doing is going to be completely easy to accomplish. This is why it is especially important to look at the little things you enjoy in everything you do.
Writing,no matter how strong your vendetta towards it, is something everyone should master and continuously work on. It is a key component in all areas, no matter your job or passion. You need to be able to communicate effectively through writing in business, or elaborate on your hypothesis when dealing with science. Place the right words in the correct places and you can create poetry or lyrics to a song. Writing, as a whole, is one of the reasons we know so much about the past and it continues to help us evolve as a species.
If it wasn’t for writing, our feelings would forever be trapped in our heads, only to evaporate into sound when we speak them. Yes, writing takes time and energy, but so does most everything else. Without writing, there would be no books, which allow you to have mentors who have long since left our world.
Thoughts drive how and why we write, which leaves no surprise that one of the biggest reasons people dislike writing is that it can be hard to place ideas on paper. It is also no help that one of our first and last entries into the world of writing is for a grade. We dislike arguably the best invention in history because we are forced to do it. We are forced to write essays, research papers or business reports.
If we want to regain our respect and admiration for writing, we must transform why we are writing. Instead of essays, write poetry. Rather than long papers, write a short story. You could write up a financial report, but how about a creative writing piece?
It is perfectly acceptable to hold a vendetta with something like writing, but it does not mean you should give up on it. Take the time to understand the skill you want to learn, and see all the different avenues you could approach it from. By taking back control of how you learn, instead of just learning for the sake of learning, you will begin to peel back the veil of your vendetta and leave room for excitement and joy.
So, take stock of what it is you want to learn or obtain in terms of a skill, then move to understand all the ways you can learn that skill. Lastly, find the way that you enjoy learning most, use it and repeat with each new endeavor.
Evan Brooks is a third-year Business Management major with minors in Economics and Civil and Professional Leadership. EB916132@wcupa.edu