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Ok well while I was writing in class today, this was playing in my head the WHOLE time. A slight (way, way more embarrassing) contrast to the song Christina put up.

I was talking to Jacklyn (I hope I spelled that decently) in the midst of the exercises and realized that one of things in What It Is that absolutely blew my mind is that it managed to convince me that all writing - ALL writing - is not only valuable and meaningful in its own way but it is a legitimate form of artistic expression. Art is in our blood, everyone's blood and saturates us as human beings and makes us human. Art is natural, inherent. There is not "better" or "worse" just as there are no "better" or "worse" apples or flowers or trees except only the context in which they're placed in. What I mean is: some apples may be tastier than others but that in no way detracts from their apple-ness.

Being an English major or having any sort of writing-intensive course-load makes you realize that so much of the learning process (and, inevitably, the teaching process) is brutal critique under the floofy (that may not be a real word...) pretense of "making us better" writers. Better, of course, always always always means "better at approximating the ideal that has already been established by people who we consider to be smarter and more accomplished than you." Fine. That's fine. I signed up for that, right? I will take the necesary beating and learn to do things your way to get a pat on the head and a brand new number to send to my mommy so she can pin it to the surface of the fridge. Because like it or not, with writing it is always personal. I will swear to you on anything, it is is is. Because you are using your language to try to speak theirs. Because you are twisting your thoughts to try to match theirs. Because even when you write the worst paper you've ever written, you are disappointed and somehow personally hurt when it gets the grade you know it totally deserves, because god knows even you didn't like your paper. 

So to have writing exist as a part of you again, to have the encouragement and ability to own your writing is a precious, precious thing.