Hend Elwahwah
Dr. Hall
Artist Statement
Me as a writer… well, it did not start off so easy. Throughout high school, I most definitely did not know how to write. I never believed in myself to ever even try as much as I wanted to. Also, my High school teachers were doing a great job at belittling my writing. All I had ever learned from high school was, “Sound professional, use big words.” That is not ME writing, that is what my teachers wanted to hear. It didn’t make me comfortable in any way possible, at some point I just started putting big words together to try to make a sentence that would sound good. That was what lead me to grow a hatred for writing. I’ve always felt like it would be a drag every time a teacher assigned us an essay to get done. During the end of senior year in high school it was time to apply for college, all I could think about was mostly, English class. My teachers in high school had always belittled my writing abilities and skills, which left me at not believing in myself. I could remember how nerve wrecking it was just to think about college classes. All I was telling myself was, “what am I going to do in English class?” “I don’t know how to write” “My professor is probably going to think I am an idiot.”
August 28th, 2018… college has started. First week of English class, we already got assigned an essay. At that moment, I lost it. I was afraid if I ended up with a terrible grade in the class because of my writing. I turned in the paper and got a C. That is terrible. Dr. Hall was my English professor and had told me to meet her in her office hours. I went to her office hour and she spoke to me and changed my thoughts about myself as a writer. She had told me, don’t use big words, stop trying to sound professional, sound like YOURSELF. . Speak like yourself, express your thoughts, ideas, and etc. I had started that class with a C, and ended up finishing the class with an A. At that moment I believed in myself. With the help of Dr. Hall I grew a love and passion for writing.
Who am I as a writer? As a writer, I am myself. Not what others want me to be. What characterizes my writing would be the types of genres that I love to write in and that usually catch my eye. I love to write about my personal day to day life because you never know what the person reading my work is going through. It takes a lot to write about your personal life, but I feel like that is me as a writer. My writing has changed drastically over the years of schooling. As I mentioned high school did not help me a single bit. This is the end of my first year of college, and I genuinely feel like English 1101 and 1121 is what shaped me as a writer. Having a professor that always believed in you and always left positivity in the end of paper you submit, it makes you want to write more. It took me a while to find out who I am as a writer and what my strengths and weaknesses are. My strengths in writing would be placing the reader in my shoes, to look at the bigger picture of life, and to get deep. My goal is to always change the readers mindset to positivity and make them feel like they have a purpose. My weaknesses would be plenty. I still am growing as a writer, and plan on working on my writing every time I have the chance too. One of my main weak points would be not knowing how to start an essay, analysis, a writing and not knowing how to end it. Also, grammar. I am in the process of learning on how to become a better writer, for myself.
There are many examples of how I have overcome my weaknesses in my writing. I’ve learned in this class over the past semester on how to focus on my weakness. As I have mentioned my main weakness would be not knowing where to start and end an analysis, essay, etc. This semester I had wrote an essay that maybe isn’t the greatest to others but something I’m very proud of for believing in myself to overcome my weakness. Thanks to Dr. Halls technique of the classwork she made us do about what setting we were in, what are we thinking, what color is the room, what time is it that you’re writing this. It has helped me alot in learning how to start and end an essay. The essay was named, “Its Beauty In The Struggle.” The evidence of overcoming my weakness would be, “It was a winter morning in Brooklyn, New York around 6:30 A.M., sunrise hitting my window, I am all bundled up, drinking my hot chocolate, listening to music on shuffle, the song “Love Yourz” starts playing by J.Cole, aka the G.O.A.T, mind you this is my all time favorite song and I always listen to it. But for some reason that morning I stopped and thought to myself, “What is J.Cole’s message in this song? What is he trying to say?.” I started listening more towards the lyrics. I also watched the music video because it explains the song in a visual way. What J.Cole is trying to portray for the audience in this song is to always be thankful for what you have. Trying to achieve your dream gets many people caught up with trying to make your dream turn into reality.” (Beauty, 1) That right there proves to me I have overcome my weakness, maybe not fully, but definitely better than I had ever expected. I seriously never knew how to start an essay or to even end one and for me to write all that and let me tell you I’m so proud of myself.
This is just the beginning of myself as a writer. To whoever reading this, you will get there and I promise you, you will make yourself proud. A major tip that I had learned in English 1121, focus on your weakness and try to get better for there. Always ask your professor for some feedback along the way. I mean hey, that’s what they’re there for! Always be kind to yourself as a writer, I’ve learned that the hard way that I wish I knew earlier. Everybody is different, and we all have our imperfections in things. Your writing may be terrible to you, but to others it may be amazing. A message from a person that was just in those shoes, BELIEVE IN YOURSELF!! You are you, and you are unique.
