I Feel Like the Captain by Mr. O

“Awkward and awful run-on!”


That commentary from a college professor destroyed my writing confidence for years.  It was a bad sentence.  I skipped every step of the writing process and deserved an awful grade on that paper.  However, I’ve never forgotten how that comment made me feel.


I couldn't analyze text and write an essay to save my life, but I always loved to tell stories.


When I was a kid, my friends’ parents would take 5-6 of us to a Pittsburgh Pirates game during the summer.  On the way home I would weave ridiculous tales from the backseat of their station wagon that left even the adults laughing.


But that snide remark ten years later from Professor Whoever broke my writing soul.  Every time I sat to write, those words haunted me.  I assumed everything I had to say was awkward and awful.


One day I shared this anecdote with some colleagues.  I was working in a PLC with teachers from my school and a few professors from a nearby university.  Our goal was to identify and bridge the gaps from high school to college writing.  We began by sharing our experiences with writing, and I told them my sob story.  They all laughed.  They had all had an experience like mine.  It was reaffirming to me.


Now I know never to write such a mean-spirited comment to a student unless I have feedback on how to fix it.  I learned that not everyone is going to like what you write.  Instead, I learned to celebrate how writing made ME feel.  When I became unconcerned with how others might judge my words, writing once again became fun.


Now I’m 35.  I wake up to write almost every morning.  I still have awkward and awful run-ons, but I feel like the captain in the back of the station wagon telling stories to a bleary-eyed crew of teenage boys about their favorite WWF wrestler and how he destroyed the city.  And farted.  Teenagers love when stories include farting.  And I’m loving every minute of it. 

Mr. O is an 11th grade English teacher.  He has been teaching at the high school level for nearly ten years.  He has presented at local, state, and national conferences.  He challenges his students to become lifelong learners and to always challenge the status quo.  He’s a voracious reader and writer.  He is part of The Staff at TeachersUncorked.com.  You can find his work and theirs on Twitter @TchrsUncorkd.