I am Who I am

Part 1
Staying Focused Ten Years Later

One day I was purging old files. I found a newspaper article about my writing workshop Kids Who Write and me. The news article was more than ten years old. I read it and discovered a new victory dance because at the present moment I lived in the trenches of preparing for my oral comprehensives while teaching four classes, two at two different campuses. Well, it was a moment of victory for me because sometimes I forget just how much I’ve done and what successes I’ve scored and how much I know. I also found another article I had written when I served as a newspaper editor. These two articles reminded me that I had not given up my dream of writing or my idea of perfecting a lifestyle of organization behavior (Read Part 2 “Organized Behavior”).

I would insert a link so you could read the articles. However, the pieces are not on the internet, that’s right you cannot Google or Bing to find these pieces. I found a three-ring binder with several magazine articles I had written that cannot be found on the internet as well. Crazy right, especially in the age of digital technology.

Here’s what I said about myself in the article “Workshops nurtures young writers’ abilities” published in the Focus on Holidays for the Poughkeepsie Journal by Rich Thomaselli. A side note, when the article was written I was Angela Batchelor. (Read “Is A Woman’s Identity Based on Her Last Name?”)
According to the article, I said with a laugh, “I wanted to write novels and live in a log cabin. But, you know, when I look back on it, nobody ever said to me, ‘This is how you go about doing it.’ They all knew how I should become a lawyer or a doctor, but it wasn’t until years later when I was older and working in corporate America that somebody took me under their wing and showed me how to be a writer.”

The reporter wrote: Now, Batchelor is the one offering her wings of guidance, making sure that doesn’t happen to other young, gifted, would be writers.

For the fifth year in a row, Batchelor is conducting the “Kids Who Write” workshop, a week-long, summer program that provides a relaxed, supportive environment for young people in grades 4-8 to develop and enhance their writing skills.
Batchelor is passionate about her craft and her industry. Her workshop is far less about teaching someone to become a newspaper writer as it is fostering the creativity that will allow a young person to pursue writing in any field. For instance, an attorney will likely be writing many legal briefs over the course of his or her career.
I said, “Sometimes you get a kid who really hates writing, and it’s like, ‘OK, tell me what you do like and tell me what you want to do with your life?’ Then it becomes this sense of amazement.”
The reporter wrote: Classes begin with a writing exercise that will be about a character, a place, even one of the five senses. That is followed by a discussion and a chance to read the writings aloud, as well as lectures on how to use characters and plot and setting.
I said, “The goal is to enhance their creativity and make them fall in love with writing. No red-penning, no papers returned for spelling, grammar, or punctuation marks.”

The reporter wrote: Writing is skill just like any other and needs to be nurtured.
The piece is continued on page three, but I cannot find that page. However, this interview reminded me that I have stayed on the course, I have not given up, and I tried something new. The advice I gave to those writing students ten years ago, I apply to myself as a writer as well as in the academic arena. I had no idea I had spent five years managing and leading the Kids Who Write workshop. Here’s what’s off the hooks, I stopped teaching Kids Who Write to pursue my Master’s degree in Creative Writing. I wanted to be a better more educated instructor of writing. Now, I have an MFA in Creative Writing and a Ph.D. in English and Humanities. Twenty years later, I considered myself to have a specialization in Life Writing. Along the way, I have served as a contingent lecturer on the collegiate level teaching predominately first-year writing courses. My philosophy about writing hasn’t changed, write about your passion I continue to tell my students. After all, my dissertation began before I started the program and the dissertation focused on my passion: diary writing.

Stay tuned for next week I am Who I am Part 2 “Organized Behavior.”