I’m beginning to suspect something strange is brewing within me. In trying to figure out why it is that I wish to write ‘book reviews’, I’ve been doing some thinking. After I had sworn it off quite quickly almost a year ago, I have a great need to do it again. But not even a need to do it well, but simply a need to do it, and I think that I may have narrowed it down.
In university, everything was about writing. If you didn’t write it out in neat paragraph form, you needed to do it again. Now that I’m in college, there’s no writing at all. Even in the communications course, it’s all individual words and phrases. No paragraphs. When I write something out in paragraph form, they tell me to rewrite it in point form, and it makes me cringe. Even though I’m sure I had the opposite feeling at some point 7 or 8 years ago. And so the need builds. I have to write a paper. Otherwise, I haven’t accomplished anything. All these numbers and equations and circuit diagrams, what do they really mean anyway? I need something in paragraph form!
This began to dawn on me after I had spent very little time and a small degree of paranoia in developing my latest book ‘review’. Even though it wasn’t very good, and quite possibly preposterous, I felt a greater degree of accomplishment from completing it than I did from completing my 30 page circuits assignment a few days before. I had words on paper (or computer, so to speak), and they meant something. Not just a stack of looseleaf filled with unintelligible symbols and equations.
I believe this is also the reason I have now delved into not only starting a new campaign, but developing an entire player’s handbook to go along with it. Finishing up the chapters in that feel so much more satisfying than solving a quadratic equation.
Now don’t get me wrong. I do find what I’m learning in college all terribly interesting. But I’ve just gotta write something!
A Wesp on the Wind 
asfarasthoughtcanreach said,
October 21, 2007 at 8:47 pm
This makes sense.
Amanda said,
October 22, 2007 at 4:10 am
I concur. You should see J…he’s going insane not having anyone to delve into debates with…Thanks heavens we’re coming home soon.
truth9 said,
October 23, 2007 at 1:46 am
I know what you mean, man. I claim to hate writing, but I’m at over 5000 words for my history and I haven’t even gotten to modern times yet.
I teach English everyday, but it’s so painful that even my best students don’t understand my vocabulary most of the time. So it’s constantly dumb it down, dumb it down.
Wes said,
October 23, 2007 at 2:06 am
That’s really gotta wear at your vocab. I know that just from working at the call center mine’s gone downhill. It’s seeping back in now that I’m in college again. Not that people in my department know a lot of big words (quite the contrary, really), but they also don’t find it offensive or arrogant when others use them, and are open to learning, which is nice.
truth9 said,
October 27, 2007 at 1:43 am
Well, yes, it does wear on the vocab a bit. At the same time, it forces my brain to jump through hoops trying to find ways of saying things more easily than comes naturally. So that forces my vocabulary to go sideways more than anything.
Unfortunately, I have to result to mere translation all too often.
Wes said,
October 27, 2007 at 2:10 am
I’ve often found that sideways ends up being down when it comes to mental tasks. Then again, I’ve found direction in general to be mentally deceiving, so I’ll accept that.
truth9 said,
October 28, 2007 at 10:45 am
Nah, I’ve been reading too much Eco for my vocab to go down, regardless of how much dumbing down I’ve had to do with my spoken vocabulary.