I Wasn’t A Big Reader After Middle School
I wasn’t a big reader after middle school. I read school assignments and maybe a book a year with a 50/50 chance I finished. I had other plans. I loved television. Obsessively loved. I wanted to work in television production which meant I had to watch EVERYTHING - so I fell a little far behind in the pleasure reading.
I went on to get 2 Bachelor’s Degrees - both in sciences - because I changed my mind. I’ve changed my mind 1000 times since but I still don't read for pleasure. I’ve embraced my lack of book knowledge and consume what I consider adequate culture from other realms. After pivoting to writing I did not embrace my lack of vocabulary so delicately. I love hearing a good word, saving it in my brain dictionary, probably to never be used again. My friends speak and I bank the big words they say like a new kid at school mastering the local lingo they will definitely mess up tomorrow.
There's so many adjectives. Every noun has fifteen other names. When was everyone learning these? What were these classes I missed? Who thought I could write? Speaking is easy - lean into the poetic approach - make up words that are vaguely understandable circumstantially but would give the best subtitler a bit of pause.
Floofy. Scootchy. Crankley. Slanging. - pray it doesn't start to sound like baby talk - Floofier-toofier. Crinkle-crankle. Sling slang sla-rangi.
Have I ever said these words before? No. Well, maybe the first four. But it's what I think everyone hears sometimes. Why am I a writer? I prefer to wear my faults embroidered on a worn out baseball cap. I’m a writer who doesn’t know a lot of words - I rely too heavily on discombobulated metaphors. My former English teachers would scoff at my run-on sentences. This is a reference for anyone in the future who would like to complain about poor writing skills - it’s called style.
Like a kid, out of breath, just trying to get the words out because their undeveloped brain in their soft little skull has to tell their story - I have to write.
