Joy 79/82: Writing ... and Rewriting

I got my first writing rejection in the fourth grade.  Perhaps it was preparing me for the long string of rejections that would follow.

I moved to a country school in the fourth grade.  There were two grades per room and I was the fourth girl in my class.  At recess we acted out little plays written by Charlene Storm ... who was perfect in every way ... but that's another story.  Day after day we acted out her plays until I decided that I wanted to write one.  So I went home, wrote a play and presented it to the group.  Everything would have been fine ... except that my handwriting was tiny and unreadable so it was rejected.

I was crushed but I accepted the rejection rather than just rewriting it more legibly.  Later, I received the only "C" I ever got in "Writing" (i.e. penmanship).  No wonder I was so insecure about writing and that it took almost 30 years and uncountable rejections before me I became a "writer."

Many years later, as a writing exercise, I rewrote that event.  In that imaginary revisiting of my life, I rewrote that play neatly and we acted it out and had fun.  Charlene and I started collaborating on plays and eventually wrote a play that we presented at our eighth grade graduation.  Rewriting that time in my life didn't change it ... but it did change me.