Why I Do Not Aim to Be a Writer First

While I was working on my Creative Writing degree at community college, I learned many different things.

I learned that while I love to use poetic language, I am not a poet.

I learned that fiction is fun to write for a drabble, but I am not a fiction author.

I learned that my heart never left nature and science.

I learned that writing is one love for me, science another, and that my desire to write is not fueled out of a desire to make money or a career or a name like so many of my other classmates.

And so I turned to creative non-fiction essays. 

Memoirs, if you prefer.

I love writing creative essays.  I love that I can incorporate my nature love and the lessons of my life into something interesting, informative, and poetic.  I love that it is a skill that will aide me as I turn my life towards nature and education.  I love that it comes so naturally to me.

And I love not making a living doing it.

This is not to say that I do not hope to eventually become published.  It does not say that I will not one day write to supplement my income.

What it says is that I do not aim to be a writer first and foremost in life.  I know people - classmates of mine - who do.

But what I notice about them is an almost superficial element.  They are so wrapped up in the competitiveness of writing that they can't appreciate the writing of their peers without becoming overly critical.  They lose track of the fun aspect of writing.  They make it a chore.

I don't want to lump all writers into this category.  I know there are some who got lucky, and write for the fulfillment it gives them or to satisfy the need they have to write while getting paid.

I'm more concerned about the people who go to school to become authors and who don't have any other plans.  The ones who focus on form and technique.  The ones who become bitter because they're trying to write the next American novel.

No thanks.

For me, I will become a teacher.  I will study the environmental sciences and educate our young people on the importance of nature.

And in my free time, I will write.

I will write for the fun, freedom, and need it satisfies.

Not for the paycheck.

~Meaghan