Touchstone Writing Moments

    As I think back over my past experiences and encounters with writing during the twenty year course of my life, four important instances stand out in my mind as being true "touchstone moments". The following memories are dear to me, especially now, as I am able to look back and see the progress I have made.  

    When I was between the ages of 6 & 7, my grandma gave me what I deemed from that moment on the greatest birthday present in the universe: a create your own storybook kit.  It really was a box full of fun, especially to me.  It provided the resources to write and illustrate my own little book - even including an envelope to send away my work to be "published".  So that birthday, my grandma and I sat down to compose a children's novel of our own.  Granted at this age, my grandmother should really have gotten credit for the story line, the correct spelling, the punctuation, ect. . . . but as loving grandmothers do, she simply donated her ideas to my own creative process.  The end product? The beloved story of "Mitsy the Kitsy", which I'm sure you all know very, very well.  Or at least little girl me believed you would come to know and love quite dearly, since it was an actual hard copy book that I wrote on my very very own! (and even illustrated too). Double feature, my friends . . . 

    If you sorted through all my belongings, you still (hopefully) wouldn't be able to find those that I have held most dear since my mid-elementary school years - all my diaries.  And there's a reason for that: ever since I can remember I would write and record my thoughts in a little book that I would put large amounts of effort into hiding.  Looking back I have a much better understanding on why I struggle with people reading my words today, and it is because of how I acted when I was younger.  Hiding my words from the world became a habit, and to this day I still keep a secret diary hidden somewhere in my bedroom. 

    Nowadays, 20 year old me has been trying her best to keep up with writing a personal blog and sharing it with whoever wants to read it.  I want to be able to gain confidence in my own words, thoughts, and ideas - enough confidence to the point where I wouldn't mind if every stranger I met on the street read my blog.  On my blog, I try to write whatever comes to mind at the moment.  Or I will be out somewhere, and little details of the world around me will inspire such ideas that I feel compelled to write about them.  Sometimes I write about ''the life and times of Lauren McCrillis'', or simply about the way I felt when I visited the Grand Canyon for the first time. My goal is to become fully confident and unashamed of my words, because then I will truly be able to grow in my writing.