“Why do you write?”

“Someone once told me that no one will listen to you better than pen and paper.”

As the pen slid down my sweaty hands for the tenth time, I refused to give up the very first paper that Professor Nivens assigned to the class; the personal narrative. My personal narrative. A big step for introverts, if you’re wondering. No other assignment will teach you how to develop confidence as a writer better than narrating the significance you give to your name.

Ruth

Sounds so sacred, doesn’t it?

Ruthless

Oops, not anymore.

I felt so free just shaping my name the way I wanted to. Me and my classmates presented in front of each other around the first month of class. Those were embarrassing times because we didn’t know each other, I can’t believe how much we talk now. In the hallways around CCNY, after class, and in our groupchats. They’re amazing people. We learned about rhetoric in fairytales (my favorite paper to write ever because I love Beauty and the Beast and that’s what my paper was about). I had fun while developing as a writer, and also developed strategies to integrate my knowledge of rhetoric into my writing. Watching Cujo was the literal cherry on top, the entire class was eager to discover where the rethoric was (right in front of our faces of course). The argumentative essay was a tough one because I didn’t want to criticize Khadija’s feelings… Until I remembered that we all have been disagreeing the entire class about literally almost every class topic because that’s the beauty in writing; it makes you feel. I can say now that I responded thoughtfully in writing to published peer essays. My overall experience in this class sharpened my self-assessment skills because from day one in Writing for the Humanities and Arts I’ve been wondering, were my previous classes so boring because I felt like there wasn’t a connection at all? Should more college courses be like this one in which we learned and had fun?