Sharing Your Story

Good morning, Highlowaha! It's Katie here ready to start another day with you!

Today I would like to take some time to honor someone I consider to be an American legend, and someone who I feel can have a great impact on many of us. Today is Maya Angelou's birthday. While I would not call myself one of her biggest fans or say that I have read the majority of the pieces she has written, I do know that she stands for a strong message. I know that she has strong themes of identity, race, family, and personal growth in her writings, and for many of us, these are the themes of our lives.

Back in June of last year, we spent a day on the blog trying to find our connections with one another. One of the strongest connections that we found was our desire to write and be published. I believe there were over 15 of us that day that all stated we have a life goal to get published. When I think of my desire to write something worthy of being published, I look to writers such as Maya Angelou who take a strong stand for what they feel is important and write about it. I think each of us has a story to share, and I know for many of us on the blog, we want to share that story.

Having said all of that- it leads me to wonder where each of you is in the writing process. I figured we could share what is is that we want to write about and have published. I'll get us started! For the past 5 years of my life (4 years of undergraduate study + 1 year of graduate study), I have sent my high, low, and aha to Claudia every Sunday. It started out as a requirement for the class I was taking with her, but it continued as my way to reflect on my experience each week. 5 years later, we have hundreds of my highs, lows, and ahas. Now that I am studying student development theory as part of my graduate work, I understand what I was experiencing as it relates to development theory. I would like to take all of these reflections and partner them together with some of these theories to create a book for my field on the development of a college student. Hopefully one day I will make this dream come true.

Now, what about you? What do you want to write about? Have you gotten started? What plans do you have in place already?

Before signing off for the day and in sticking with our theme of sharing one new idea every day, I would like to share some tips I have received over time as I've shared my goal of getting published with others. One mentor once told me to make sure I keep a notebook next to the head of my bed every night to write down any middle of the night ideas I have. He told me it was important that I write at least one thing in this notebook every day to keep the ideas flowing. He also suggested that this notebook only be used for the ideas related to my book. This way, all the thoughts would be centralized in one location instead of having them spread all over the place. Another mentor once shared a set of Top 10 Tips for Writing Like a Pro. Check out this website for the tips: Top 10 Tips.

If you don't have a desire to write and be published, do you know anyone that does? What have you done to encourage them in this pursuit? I once sent a care package to the person I hope to write my book with that included red pens, motivational quotes about writing, a notebook to be jotting down ideas, etc. Is there something you could be doing to encourage this person to share their story?

Signing off until Monday...