Sunday, May 24, 2015

Tiffany’s Got The Writing Bug

By Kimberly Johnson

This won’t take too long. My cousin Tiffany has a summer reading independent book report and she wants me to help her with it. That’s saying a lot from someone who counts Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber and Zendaya as her social media buddies. Let me back up. 

Tiffany’s mom teaches 8th grade Language Arts-slash-English-slash-Writing. She wants Tiffany ahead of the curve so this is where the independent comes in. Tiffany has to read “The Classics” before entering the sixth grade. OMG—I remember that. It’s my job to help Tiffany organize her thoughts and notes. Best thing is, Tiffany likes to put pen to paper. She submitted articles for her class newsletter, she helped her mom with lesson plans, she even thought about writing an online letter to The State newspaper. 

Heck, with all that texting and tweeting, who knew she could compose complete sentences. I like this move Tiffany’s making. I believe that young people can become awesome writers. It opens the doors to critical thinking and creativity which will make them a valuable asset in whatever endeavor they seek out.

When I was her age and even younger, I liked to compose short stories and bind the loose leaf sheets with construction paper. I too completed those pesky summer reading reports. That started my writing bug.  I scratched the itch while writing for the high school newspaper; took a hiatus in college; and jumped back in with my first job after college. I worked for the Newberry Observer. From there, I continued feeding the writing bug with freelance opportunities.

Sorry, I need to leave you guys…Tiffany’s writing bug is biting.

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