Challenges of Writing

My parents are overachievers. My dad ranks so highly in a Fortune 100 Company that only 12 other people in the nation and Canada hold his same job title. My mom is the youngest ever superintendent of Broken Bow Public Schools. Both have double master's degrees. Both run marathons and epitomize physical fitness. Naturally, I came into the world with the potential to be an academic achiever. I was given crates of books each Christmas from my grandparents and had my favorites memorized verbatim by age 3. I went to a special pre-school called ABC Bear, which had me reading by age 4. This was when we lived in the suburbs of Kansas City.

Then we moved.

Broken Bow, OK is a desolate intelligence-suck of a town (population 4,000). To be successful in the real world, I realized I needed to be proactive and push myself to be more than just the best of my small town. I read constantly and stayed leagues ahead of my peers doing my own streamlined curriculum. The teachers knew they had little to offer me but room to teach myself. In high school, my English teacher served also as cheerleading coach. We spent most classes painting signs for pep rallies--not exactly conducive for learning.

I learned to read because of my terrific parents. I learned to write because I'm a reader, and that's how it works. You emulate the grammar and punctuation styles of what you read. I owe nothing to any so-called teachers except my loathing of their hometown.

Finally, I'm a writer because I write. I began a blog during my sophomore year of high school called "Underage Thinking." Read about it on my new blog: lanedrops.blogspot.com. I won't elaborate here. My point is, the best way to learn all the nuances and subtleties of the English language is to work them out yourself. Just write.