I am, a writer!

I've sat many morning on my computer writing my blogs and thinking, "I wish I was a writer." A few days ago I was reading a family member's blog and I thought wow Nina is a really good writer. She just recently created a new website and under her description she has actress and writer. I thought to myself wait a minute Nina is right, she is a writer, she has her blog and so do I, so that makes me a writer too.

During my college years I wrote for my college newspaper, which was a publication, created press releases and freelanced a couple of articles for leisure magazines in Orlando. One of the reasons I began this blog was because my pastor back in Louisville suggested that if I wanted to write I should publish my work through a blog. And that is how this writing project began.

I struggle, though, with the feeling of how our identities and the way people perceive us are shaped by what we do in life. I love to write and hope to one day do it for a living, but right now that is not my job. I get scared and embarrassed to say that I'm a writer. Am I being a poser? What makes me a writer or not a writer? I don't feel worthy of identifying myself as a writer. I figured the only way you can be called a writer was to get published by a newspaper, magazine or writing your own book. Well I have a degree in Communication and my whole college experience revolved around writing.

Today at our new church we had an event called Meet, Serve, and Worship. There were several service project that we could sign up for to give back to the community and serve. My husband and I left signing up for the last minute so there wasn't much to choose from. We found a project at our son's school, it was writing to letter's to the eight graders who would be moving on to high school nest year. We were to write one or two students a letter of advise telling them something that we would have wanted to hear when we were eighth graders. At first my husband and I thought it was a bit corny, but then we realized that it was an honor to be able to write letters to kids that we had never met and could possibly be influencing their lives by this project. That was way I wanted to be a writer.

I may not have many people reading my blog or I may have, who knows. The point is I'm writing and publishing it. So when asked who and what I am, I can say, a mom, wife, and writer!