The Long and Short of it.

I was asked today why I was an English Major (or minor in my case). My short answer:

I wrote for my city's newspaper for about three years and the general opinion was that I was pretty good. People tell you that enough and you begin to believe them. I'm a jazz major with a minor in creative writing--I'm obviously doing it for the money. But I just love to write.


As the Dr. Baker (call him Jeff) continued down the row of hopeful soon-to-be-teachers and stary-eyed idealists, I began to wonder what the long answer was. Here's what I've sumized thus far:

First of all the short answer wasn't a lie at all--in fact I honestly started writing for the money. My best friend had begun writing for the Modesto Bee a few months before me and told me about it one day walking home from school. How he actually gets published in the modesto bee, how people have sent him e-mails praising his work. How he gets paid. "Paid!? You get paid!?" I demanded. "Well, yeah only ten or fifteen dollars an article.." "You get paid!?" It wasn't long before I was meeting with the editor. Turns out I had a knack and before you could say freelance-paycheck I was turning out many a popular article.
It's amazing how quickly something can transform from a mild hobby to an almost addiction. I went from wanting to impress everyone around me, to wanting to impress myself. I started working with poetry and discovered that it was one of the most theraputic releases I've ever felt. Yet still the question has not been answer--why?
Writing, especially poetry, is about presenting your thoughts in a manner that not only gets your point across, but connects with the reader as well. Poetry is a portrait of words, taking the one thing a form of expression we are taught all our lives, and paints a picture for the reader. Like everything in life, language has rules that need to be followed. The beauty of poetry is how well you can use those rules (or how shredly you can break them) to your advantage. A poem can sum up the volumes one has to say on a subject in a neatly organized, consise few lines. And the true masters of poetry know how to pack as much meaning into each word as possible. Beyond that all great writers know how to use words to hold your attention until they're absolutely through with it. In history when ever something monumentous happens we turn to the writers--the poets, the authors and the bards--because it is they who seem to have a unique understanding of the situatioin, and it is they who are able to completley communicate true emotion that was being faced.
Why am I an english minor? It's obviously not for the money anymore. I want to create, and I want to remember, and I want to give life to an otherwise completely normal event. I want to find the one thing that makes something special and craft it into a work of art. I believe in the preservation of life, and writing it down is the best way to do it. That's my answer.