#mondaymood - it's a rollercoaster of love on a burning track.
I graded the thesis statements for the Literary Analysis
Essays from my ENGL1302 classes this morning.
It was rough for me as a professor. They struggled with
the assignment, even though in the past, this has been one of the easier thesis
assignments (in my opinion) of this semester for my students. Usually, only two or three people need to redo it. That was not the case this time.
Oddly enough (and I know this is the case), when I show them the sample essay, there are
several notes on there where I rewrote the thesis for the sample four
times. How ironic is that? I tell them that this will be the easiest
thesis statement that they will write for the whole semester, but my example has me
rewriting it three times.
As I graded the assignments, I fussed because they seemed to struggle so much with the assignment. But, as I went through the sample essay walk through with my first class of the day, I felt more compassion towards my students. As I told my students in class, I do not know why I struggled with the thesis statement for this essay. I wrote the essay four years ago and I have slept a few times since then and there are no notes about my writing of the essay, so, I do not know my thinking at the time. From what I wrote, all of the thesis statements are similar and talk about the same three things, so, I think I was trying to figure what angle I wanted to write the essay from, and what I had written for the first two thesis statements would not work when I finally realized where I wanted to go.
All of this reminds me that every writer has their own struggles, and that is okay. No matter where we are as writers, we all struggle. I have been writing since I was nine years old, and even after over 40 years of writing, I still struggle. At times, I chastise myself for having some of the struggles I have, even though I know struggles are a part of writing and being a writer.
As this assignment showed me, there are times when you feel something is easy and you will struggle. There are times when you think something is hard and it will be easy.
Writing is a funny thing; a rollercoaster of emotions, moments, thoughts, creativity; that often times leads to a beautifully created symphony of words that can free minds, heal souls, mend hearts, and change lives. It is the tearing out of your own heart to pour into the heart of other people. It is a spiritual journey that creates freedom for both the writer and the reader. It is a world of vacillation between self-doubt and self-confidence, all in the same moment.
Writing is not for the faint of heart. It is crazy being a writer.