Why do I write?

This was a question asked at writers group and it has been a topic that has come up again...here is what I wrote:

Why do you write?

When I was younger and in school, I can’t really remember a time that I was happy to be in or at school. The school put me into their system of “not so smart” kids and pointed it out often. I spent several hours a day with mentally handicapped kids and kids with serious behavior problems. I was scared to be there and to think that my label was now one of them.

I spent all my young years in special reading and math classes, some for general help. I didn’t really need it I just didn’t like school. I was not fun and the stuff we were learning was not true.

I barely made passing grades. When my dad got sick with cancer, the happiest part of that time for me was when I decided to quit school…then after my dad walked on, I decided to go back and finish…when I turned 18 prior to graduation, I decided then that I was signing myself out of all the special classes and went main stream. I ended up with very good grades…and graduated with the honor of achievement. I was so happy I would never have to read another book or write anything…EVER!

Well, that all came crashing down on me in 1990. Writing came to me when I was 25 years of age. I began to have thoughts in my head that would NOT go away…they would play over and over in my head till I wrote them down. Once I wrote them down, they didn’t bother me again.

In the beginning, I wrote short stories because I was NEVER, EVER going to write poetry…THAT would be torture! That illusion too, came to a quick end. I began having thoughts of rhyming words…then different forms of poems…then came the haiku’s! As my writing got better, so did my photography…and in those two things, lies the gifts.

I write because the Creator has something to say and I will write it down…I take pictures because the Creator has spirits in their beauty to share…

Anna Martineau Merritt, 2008