Writing

Rather than comment directly on my dad's new post, I'm going to write what I think about the last part of it here. Writing is most certainly the only way I can find out what I think. A quote from a class yesterday:

"I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means."

--Joan Didion

Whoever that is. But it's perfectly true. I was about to write a letter to the Daily Universe (BYU's newspaper) is response to some other letters I disagreed with. As I began to write, I realized I knew exactly how I would counter every argument I was trying to use. So much for that idea.

Another great example. I was about to write a paragraph or so about some things I'm finding interesting about Ender's Game as I read it for the first time. About halfway through, though, I realized I didn't really think anything interesting about it at all, at least not yet. Except it's science fiction with an intuitive, fast-moving plot, which makes it my favorite kind of book.

The one place I've written more than anywhere else is in my journal. I have a notebook, a full-sized journal, and most of a second one filled with entries dating back to 2003, I believe. And just as writing tells me what I'm thinking now, reading my own writing tells me what I was thinking then, more than I would think. Even stupid entries like, "Well, we've got the first playoff game tomorrow. 7:00 @ Hampton-Dumont. I need to rest up for it." That's only half the entry, but it's a good example of many entries I put in because I wanted to write something every day. It also tells me what I was thinking then: what was important, who I cared about, what was on my mind. Especially when I look at other entries around it. Keeping a journal was one of the things I definitely did correctly when I was 13. I don't know how many other things fit that description. What was I like at age 13, anyway?

I guess I could check my journal...