Categories
Blog

What I know now that I wish I knew then: reflective writing #CCCWrite

I’m excited to be a part of this reflective writing club, which is motivating me as both a writer and a teacher. I might switch these posts out to a separate blog from my writing and consulting blog, but for now, here I go.

My first #CCCWrite blog post answers the following prompt: What do you know now that you wish you had known then?

Simple: it’s ok to try something without knowing how it will turn out. Duh, right? But it’s taken me a few decades to understand that taking certain risks won’t kill me. Trying something out and seeing what happens: something I am always telling my students to do, with their writing, but which I was hesitant to do, myself, for a long time, with anything else.

Drinking and driving–yes, that could kill me.  Taking a two-week visiting lecturer gig in New York, which could potentially affect my employment status in San Diego (where I adjunct in English at Mesa College)–well no, it actually didn’t kill me. It did, in fact, affect my employment status. But it also opened up other possibilities, and I am reveling in some of those now. And while part of  that opening up was luck or fortune, and being in the right place at the right time, I wouldn’t have been in that right place, had I not taken a risk. The other thing I know now that I wish I knew then: I can’t sit around and wait for things to come to me, as if my merit had some gravitational force. It doesn’t. I have learned that I have to broadcast it, and that broadcasting takes time, risk, possible humiliation, and potential loss. I’m cool with that now.

4 replies on “What I know now that I wish I knew then: reflective writing #CCCWrite”

Hi Dr. C! I was just reading Todd’s post about the need for patience, and he has some very good thoughts there about learning to be patient… and I also very much agree with what you said here about seizing the initiative, tinkering, trying, and then seeing what happens, instead of just waiting for things to happen. I like to make memes for my students at cheezburger, and I made this one that has a kind of similar theme:
Life has no remote. You have to get up and change it yourself!
http://growthmindsetmemes.blogspot.com/2016/07/life-has-no-remote-you-have-to-get-up.html
…. meanwhile, I am pondering the possibilities of a universe in which the laws of physics DID include merit as a gravitational force. How cool would that be? Kind of like a video game where the laws of physics obey the powers and merits acquired by the players… but in real life!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts here, I am glad to have met you here at this Writing Club… keep on broadcasting! 🙂

How funny, Kristen, that my first blog post for the reflective writing club was also about trying things without knowing how they might turn out – I called it being fearless and it is something I wish I had known then that I know now! Great post! #CCCWrite

Leave a Reply to Laura Gibbs Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.