2nd best (only to a snuggie)

This year for Christmas I got a lot of useful gifts: hat and scarf set, pajamas (3 pairs!), wii fit as our family gift, a snuggie... But about week after December 25th, I got this years 2nd most useful gift.

My whole life up to and through this point my biggest desire was and is to write. And much more than that: to write well. I am not a student who moans and groans over essay assignments and research papers. I thrive on those assignments. I love when I get the chance to bring the "English major" in me out in other subject areas. (In group projects, I volunteer perpetually to be the note taker.) It is at the core of who I am.

The Aspiring Writer's Journal. Susie Morgenstern formatted this book (the aforementioned present) to be a guide for a day by day, yearlong process. It nudges you to write every day with it's interesting prompts.

Susie states in the introduction that writing takes enormous effort. It is like playing the piano, running a marathon, and solving Sudoku on the advanced level in record time. It takes practice. I will never be the writer I want to be without practice.

So, it's practice time.

Day 1, January 1st (technically 2nd), 2010.

"Write ten wishes for the new year."

I wish...to learn to love in everything I do, by following the perfect example, our Creator.

I wish...to find a way to minimize my financial debt that will accumulate in the next 4 years.

I wish...to forget about being wronged and start apologizing for wronging.

I wish...to confront secrets and correct problems.

I wish...for restored relationships.

I wish...to not only find my place in college, my (soon-to-be) new community, but also in all the communities I am already involved in.

I wish...to believe based on faith and truth. And to not hide from doubt, but deal with it.

I wish...to be able to prove to myself that I can write in forms that do not come as easily.

I wish...to take criticism well in every way.

I wish...to be around and associated with only the things that bring out the best and not the worst in me.