Zero degrees of separation

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading Lynn Bloom's Seven Deadly Virtues. I can relate to her as an aspiring academic, a mother, a wife, and a woman. While Bloom is writing from a much more experienced perspective that I have yet to attain on my own, I can take the wisdom that she offers me and run with it.

I know that I need to write more. Let me clarify. I need to write more for myself, about myself, and about the experiences that I have. All of the things that I think, I should write that down, but I don't. It's always when I'm washing my face, or showering, or driving, or standing somewhere with no pen or paper available to me. Sometimes I will scrawl random thoughts across my phone keyboard, never to be glanced at again. Or I will scribble it on a small piece of scratch paper - also, never to be found again. I feel like I need 40 journals to keep in all the places I might need one. One in my purse, one in my car, one in the shower, one next to the stove, one in the backyard... this would not be efficient.

When I sat down to start writing for my personal academic essay, I found myself THINKING and typing and editing... writing like I would for school. This is the problem that I find when typing on a keyboard, in a word document. When I write in a journal, in my own handwriting, it is as if I can feel the words traveling from my brain through my arm and down into my hand. It is natural. But sometimes the thoughts come too quickly and my hand cannot move fast enough. I miss things, elements that I could have recorded with my swift and nimble clicking fingertips against the keys. But it feels mechanistic. It feels like it must be perfected. It feels like it must be - academic. So, I must continue to write with my pen or train myself to write more openly on the keyboard.

This class is a challenge for me. I have mastered the ability to write academically. Give me a topic and I will research it and present you with a polished paper. I have not, however, mastered the ability to write personally. It is a goal of mine to become a better personal writer, a goal that I view as a difficult one. What stories do I tell? How will I know what to include? How do I present myself? I know that the readings we are experiencing are pointing us in the directions to these questions but it is all a learning process.

I agree with Bloom that writing and cooking are both "a messy mix of knowledge and improvisation, experience and innovation, and continual revision with a lot going on between the lines" (149).