Paddling

"Confidence is like a muscle and the more you use it the stronger it gets." Getting over the fear of writing and grounding oneself enough to have a better feel of direction are the first two steps to more powerful and impactful writing. Over my college career there have been a number of occasions where I have felt this confidence when presented with a new writing task and added challenges of my own, just to see how far I could go out into those unknown waters. Keeping an eye on the shore is important, but a focus when the waters stir is equally as important to making it back in one piece. Here are some examples that I was able to navigate the assignments with a developed confidence in my writing abilities. Ones that took me far closer to the achievement I was seeking, but still had moments of slight unease.

Natural Disasters

English 1010

Intro into Drawing

Amercian Civilazations

via GIPHY

Native American Voices

Intro into Jewelry Making

Math 1030

Let's think of the ideas or thoughts we want to convey as the water. It flows and often follows where it can be led or follows in directions it already knows. Next, let's think of the act of freezing like the act of writing those things down. We claim a position, sometimes rethinking it and forming it up in other ways, like the melting or thawing of water. If we think of this chemically, then the molecules move fast, if they move too fast they become air and float away, like unwritten ideas but when they freeze they slow down, sometimes barely moving on a point and that is writing them down. It is then we can see them interact with other molecules of thoughts or water (though in other states they can as well), some may even follow another's lead, slowing down to listen or move on with that idea, changing it to fit them. However, it's when many begin to listen or to think about it that it creates the sheets of ice that can move mountains. Sometimes those written sheets of ice move slowly to create the changes in our world. Sometimes in an instance, it finds just the right crack and breaks and crumbles the solid foundations that needed to move aside. No matter the change or speed the water, ice, or stone, makes, it is the constant transformation that writing should continue to solidify within and beyond us.