Every year in the U.S alone there are about 44 oil spills which are almost a spill every week. This number isn’t even including the little spills either. Actually, about 80 percent of spills aren’t even reported so imagine how much spills there really are every year. This begins to make me think about how much oil spills are there really a year.  Oil spills are caused either by human activity or natural disasters. You can’t control natural disasters because it is unexpected. However, you can control human-made mistakes. These mistakes are caused by workers being lazy and not caring about the consequences of their actions. They do not realize that little mistakes end up leading to big problems. Just a tiny spill containing a few molecules of oil can kill fish and cause air-breathing sea animals to have health defects. Oil is a necessity during this time because it is used for many important things. Oil is the number one fossil fuel used for energy. Due to oils’ importance in our world, we can’t really afford to stop using it. We know that using oil comes with some consequences and we can prevent those consequences one step at a time. There are many factors to look at when trying to make oil safer to use. For example, how do we use the oil and how can we prevent it from polluting the Earth. Although we use oil for things like medicine and heat for our homes, it is harmful to use because oil usage causes pollution and environmental cost. 

Oil spills are one of the biggest causes of pollution. There are many ways that the usage of oil pollutes the earth and that is because there are different uses of oil. For example, oil is burned to when it is used to provide electricity. When the oil is burned it releases a lot of toxins into the air which isn’t good for the atmosphere. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, “In 2014, approximately 78 percent of US global warming emissions were energy-related emissions of carbon dioxide. Of this, approximately 42 percent was from oil”. This tells us that more than half of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions was due to oil. This also shows us that oil is a primary source of energy. Oil is a very efficient source of energy economically which makes it be used even more. With oil being so valued we can’t really replace it but instead, have to make it better. ThoughtCo states that “the severity of environmental damage caused by an oil spill depends on many factors, including the amount of oil spilled, type and weight of oil, location of the spill, species of wildlife in the area, timing of breeding cycles and seasonal migrations, and even the weather at sea during and after the oil spill”. This shows that oil spills have an effect on almost everything. It all depends on location, type, and quantity, the more oil that is spilled the more catastrophic the effects are. Oil spills are mostly known for their impacts on the water. Oil is known to kill or harm many animals and that is why many organizations come together to prevent that from happening. Although it is mostly known for happening in the water it actually happens anywhere and depending on where it is the impacts vary. For example, if oil spills on land it can choke off plant life. Oil and living organisms don’t really correspond when it comes to oil spills. Oil spills are one of the most dangerous forms of pollution.

Oil spills are inevitable and cost a lot to clean up. You can’t really predict an oil spill because if you can there wouldn’t be any spills. There would be procedures to prevent that from happening. However, you can’t control everything. Natural disasters are sometimes unpredictable and can cause catastrophic effects to take place. These effects come with hefty price tags. In 2010 an unpredicted catastrophic event occurred when a deepwater horizon oil rig exploded. It killed 11 workers and expelled oil into the water for 87 days. According to AP News, “BP estimates cost of 2010 Gulf oil spill at $61.6 billion”. This was a recent oil spill that was so big that is cost the company not millions but tens of billions of dollars. This event happened not even a decade ago with modern technology. This shows that even with modern technology we still have no control over the unexpected. The unexpected also leaves us with a big financial dent. Not only was money lost because of the oil but money was needed to clean up. There were 87 days of oil leaked into the gulf which is way too much and also why it is seen as one of the largest oil spills in history. Due to it being BP’s fault since it’s their rig they have to clean it. The Washington Post stipulates, “Three years after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, BP announced Monday that the U.S. Coast Guard is ending its clean-up effort”. 3 years after the incident and cleaning the gulf, BP thinks it’s clean enough to move on. This spill took 3 years to clean and it’s probably not even cleaned properly. BP would have to spend more money to properly clean the whole gulf of all the oil they spilled and they already spent billions of dollars. Cleaning up oil spills is not only expensive but it’s a hard task to complete due to the complications of removing oil from water. Others may say that oil is only harmful when it is being produced because of bad practices. Some people take their job seriously at the oil rig while others do not. With this being said, with extra supervision and proper work being done then oil spills would be reduced. Ayesha Rascoe states that “The commission’s investigators said BP workers failed to ask a knowledgeable company engineer who was visiting the rig about unexpected results from a critical negative pressure test on the rig”. This shows that it was the worker’s fault for not informing the company engineer of issues that resulted in the rig exploding. This could have been avoided if the workers had more sense. However, although this can be avoided it never will be. This has been an ongoing issue and it has never changed. For example, the 3rd worst oil spill happened in 1979 because of pressure buildup which could have been avoided and in 2010 an oil rig exploded in the gulf due to no one reporting issues. These were in the top 3 worlds worst oil spills and it was caused by workers not paying attention to their job. The worst spills the world has seen was caused by workers.

Every year in the U.S alone there are about 44 oil spills which are almost a spill every week. This number isn’t even including the little spills either. Actually, about 80 percent of spills aren’t even reported so imagine how much spills there really are every year. This begins to make me think about how much oil spills are there really a year.  Oil spills are caused either by human activity or natural disasters. You can’t control natural disasters because it is unexpected. However, you can control human-made mistakes. These mistakes are caused by workers being lazy and not caring about the consequences of their actions. They do not realize that little mistakes end up leading to big problems. Just a tiny spill containing a few molecules of oil can kill fish and cause air-breathing sea animals to have health defects. Oil is a necessity during this time because it is used for many important things. Oil is the number one fossil fuel used for energy. Due to oils’ importance in our world, we can’t really afford to stop using it. We know that using oil comes with some consequences and we can prevent those consequences one step at a time. There are many factors to look at when trying to make oil safer to use. For example, how do we use the oil and how can we prevent it from polluting the Earth. Due to the fact that oil pollutes the Earth, we have to find ways to reduce pollution because we rely on the energy that oil provides.

Oil spills are one of the biggest causes of pollution. There are many ways that the usage of oil pollutes the earth and that is because there are different uses of oil. For example, oil is burned when it is used to provide electricity. When the oil is burned it releases a lot of toxins into the air which isn’t good for the atmosphere. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, “In 2014, approximately 78 percent of US global warming emissions were energy-related emissions of carbon dioxide. Of this, approximately 42 percent was from oil”. This tells us that more than half of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions was due to oil. This also shows us that oil is a primary source of energy because of the quantity of carbon dioxide it produces. If oil was barley used you would see those statistics deplete. Oil is a primary source of energy for us because it is very efficient both in power and economically which makes it be used even more. With oil being so valued we can’t really replace it and we suffer consequences for that. ThoughtCo states that “the severity of environmental damage caused by an oil spill depends on many factors, including the amount of oil spilled, type and weight of oil, location of the spill, species of wildlife in the area, timing of breeding cycles and seasonal migrations, and even the weather at sea during and after the oil spill”. This shows that oil spills have an effect on almost everything. It all depends on location, type, and quantity, the more oil that is spilled the more catastrophic the effects are. Oil spills are mostly known for their impacts on the water. Oil is known to kill or harm many animals and that is why many organizations come together to prevent that from happening. Although it is mostly known for happening in the water it actually happens anywhere and depending on where it is the impacts vary. For example, if oil spills on land it can choke off plant life. Oil and living organisms don’t really correspond when it comes to oil spills. Oil spills are one of the most dangerous forms of pollution.

When the oil is spilled their effect can be catastrophic to some living organisms. Just like how oil is versatile when providing the energy it is also versatile in the way it destroys. Whether it be anything living, it’s habitat or the Earth, once that oil spills something is going to be destroyed. What some people don’t know is that the oil actually goes down into the water after time. When you think about oil and water you begin to think that oil floats because it’s density is less than water however this is not the case over time. According to ThoughtCo, “When oil eventually stops floating on the water’s surface and begins to sink into the marine environment”. This is terrible for marine animals because they can’t escape it nor do they know what’s coming to them. Due to human mistakes, thousands of marine animals either die become contaminated. Also, a big issue we face with this that is often overlooked is that a good portion of our oxygen comes from phytoplankton which are plants found in the ocean. Since oil is known to kill living organisms we know our oxygen making plant is no exception to this. Considering that these plants provide a lot of our oxygen we should be doing everything to protect it. Oil isn’t only taking our oxygen but it’s taking away our food too. Plants are not the only thing affected, fish are too and its deeper than just that. Jason Chavis, a writer for Sciencing, states that “If a fish consumes a small amount of oil, it can survive, but may pass on that oil to another animal far away from the site, causing its death”. This shows that if fish takes in just a small portion of oil it might survive. However, this survival would now impact whatever consumes it. The fish would carry around that oil and its predator could end up dying. This also shows that oil could potentially give fish the same effect carrying venom or other toxins would. This isn’t a great though, if the fish doesn’t find a way to dispel the oil from its body then it’ll die in some time. Oil spills aren’t good for anyone, at the end of the day all it does is harm something one way or another.

Oil spills are inevitable and cost a lot to clean up. You can’t really predict an oil spill because if you can there wouldn’t be any spills. There would be procedures to prevent that from happening. However, you can’t control everything. Natural disasters are sometimes unpredictable and can cause catastrophic effects to take place. These effects come with hefty price tags. In 2010 an unpredicted catastrophic event occurred when a deepwater horizon oil rig exploded. It killed 11 workers and expelled oil into the water for 87 days. According to AP News, “BP estimates cost of 2010 Gulf oil spill at $61.6 billion”. This was a recent oil spill that was so big that is cost the company not millions but tens of billions of dollars. This event happened not even a decade ago with modern technology. This shows that even with modern technology we still have no control over the unexpected. The unexpected also leaves us with a big financial dent. Not only was money lost because of the oil but money was needed to clean up. There were 87 days of oil leaked into the gulf which is way too much and also why it is seen as one of the largest oil spills in history. Due to it being BP’s fault since it’s their rig they have to clean it. The Washington Post stipulates, “Three years after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, BP announced Monday that the U.S. Coast Guard is ending its clean-up effort”. 3 years after the incident and cleaning the gulf, BP thinks it’s clean enough to move on. This spill took 3 years to clean and it’s probably not even cleaned properly. On a larger scale of thinking, what happened to marine life in that area? 3 whole years the gulf was being cleaned up for which also means that for 3 years oil flooded those waters. BP would have to spend more money to properly clean the whole gulf of all the oil they spilled and they already spent billions of dollars. Cleaning up oil spills is not only expensive but it’s a hard task to complete due to the complications of removing oil from water.

Others may say that oil is only harmful when it is being produced because of bad practices. Some people take their job seriously at the oil rig while others do not. With this being said, with extra supervision and proper work being done then oil spills would be reduced. White House Reporter, Ayesha Rascoe, states that “The commission’s investigators said BP workers failed to ask a knowledgeable company engineer who was visiting the rig about unexpected results from a critical negative pressure test on the rig”. This shows that it was the worker’s fault for not informing the company engineer of issues that resulted in the rig exploding. This could have been avoided if the workers had more sense. However, although this can be avoided it never will be. This has been an ongoing issue and it has never changed. For example, the 3rd worst oil spill happened in 1979 because of pressure buildup which could have been avoided and in 2010 an oil rig exploded in the gulf due to no one reporting issues. These were in the top 3 worlds worst oil spills and it was caused by workers not paying attention to their job. The worst spills the world has seen was caused by workers. So these spills are inevitable and not only bad practices are the cause of this. Spills will happen whether it is man-made or it happens naturally.

In conclusion, oil has been out for over 100 years and is now a primary source of energy even though it pollutes the Earth. Oil is basically bad for the environment but it is hard to stop using it. This is because oil is a convenient and reliable source of energy. Oil can be manipulated in various ways for energy and that is why it is sought out. Since oil causes so many issues we should take a major negative impact of oil and fix it which are oil spills. If we fix oil spills from happening we can save a lot of money and life. You have to start somewhere to see good results and this would be a great place to start.

Energy is something that life relies on. Energy is very versatile with its usage. The way we see energy today is through things such as heat and electricity. There are many ways that these types of energy are fueled. One of those big fuels is known as oil. Oil over time has been used as the primary energy fuel worldwide. This energy source is known to be convenient and efficient. Not only does it provide tons of energy but it is also very cheap to buy which is why large amounts of it are bought by different countries. Due to this energy being cheap more of it will be bought making more energy use available. If we have more fuel for energy then we’ll find other uses for that energy. Oil was first used as lighter fluid and now it is being used to heat up homes and it is used to power up buildings via electricity. These are not the only things that oil fuels and perhaps as time progresses oil will fuel more types of energy. This may be very efficient but not all things that make life easier are good. Oil is a fossil fuel which means when it is burned it emits pollutants like methane and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Also, another thing is that since oil is a fossil fuel it is a non-renewable resource. This means that oil can not renew itself faster than it is consumed. Although oil is efficient and convenient it will not last forever. Oil is important because it has been heavily relied on since it was discovered but it pollutes the atmosphere and it is not safe to work with.

Oil was first discovered in America through an oil rig. Back when it was discovered there weren’t many things for energy to be used on. There weren’t any lights or radiators for energy to be applied to it. When oil was discovered it was only used for lighter fluid. This discovery, however, led to multiple inventions that revolved around this oil. Power plants ended up being built to harness the energy from oil. The main reason we have power plants is to refine this oil to use for energy. Now with the energy taking different forms it as able to be used for different things. Automobiles were later invented revolving around the oil to power it up and help it function. With this bred life into the billion cars, we see today. When oil was known to be an energy source people started looking for things for this newly found energy to power up. This is what started to make oil important. Cars are one of the best forms of transportation and are very convenient for people. Also, the fact that oil is easy to extract and distribute made it even more valuable. People such as business owners and engineers looked to use this energy more due to its efficiency. These are the people that designed products to rely on oil and overtime as the quantity of these products began to rise so did the demand for oil. A big example of this is an electric light bulb and cars. There are cars no matter where you go, not only that but the streets are flooded with them. After light bulbs were invented they were put everywhere including cars. There is not one building you walk into that doesn’t have any lights. These are just two of the many inventions that require oil for it to work. Of course, there are alternatives but these inventions were built around oil which is why oil would be the most efficient source of energy for these products. Due to this people have no choice but to keep using oil to live a very convenient life and you have no one to blame but the people who built things around that energy. 

Although oil makes our life easier it makes the Earth’s life harder. Oil causes three major types of pollution. These types of pollution are air, water, and land. This is basically everywhere but some types are being more negatively affected than others and that is because of the way the oil is being used. Air is being polluted whenever the oil is being burned. Oil is burned for many reasons, one major one being electricity. Electricity is one kind of power people can’t live without and what people use a lot of. “On average, 12 pounds of sulfur dioxide, and four pounds of nitrogen oxides are emitted per megawatt-hour of electricity generated from burning oil”(Ballotpedia). The amounts and content of the gas being emitted is no good for the atmosphere. These emissions contain a lot of impurities which can be fatal to anyone who inhales it. These aren’t even all the deadly gasses that burning oil emits. Burning oil also emits volatile organic compounds and hydrogen sulfide. Volatile organic compounds are composed of numerous toxic substances. This is seen as a cloud of smog and high-level exposure could potentially cause cancer. Hydrogen sulfide is released through diesel fuel. If you are exposed to any level of this you’ll be harmed but the higher the levels the more fatal it’ll be. Oil doesn’t just affect the air it affects the water too. It affects the water through oil spills. These spills harm much aquatic life near the spill whether it be their habitats or the animal itself. An example many people have seen is the dawn soap commercial that shows a baby penguin body filled up with oil due to oil spills. The commercial wasn’t made to just promote their product but it was to make viewers more aware of oil spills and what it does to animals. Oil spills affect a large amount of water and there are many species of living organisms in the water that will suffer. The last thing oil pollutes is the land. There are many ways oil can pollute the land. These ways are “ pipeline leaks, railroad accidents, poor oil storage, natural seeping into land or soil, poor working practices, drilling accidents, and more”(Ballotpedia). This type of pollution is bad for the land because it contaminates the soil. With oil in the soil water cannot be absorbed. This is terrible for many reasons one being agriculture, in that area will be in a lot of trouble because the soil wouldn’t be able to absorb the water. Sometimes the oil can get into groundwater which is bad because that can potentially reach rivers or an ocean. Oil drilling is bad for the environment and it isn’t even a safe source of energy.

Oil rigs are dangerous because oil spills are unpredictable and people can be harmed in the process. People have to drill into the Earth for oil then they have to extract the oil. None of these sound safe because it’s not anything that can happen to harm the workers. Drilling in the Earth for oil in no way sounds like it is safe. This sounds dangerous, workers get injured all the time because they have to transport a lot of heavy items they might not be used to. Not only this but the most dangerous part about working on an oil field is it can blow up at any time without warning which can either kill you or leave you with serious injuries. “The BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig blowout caused one of the worst man-made environmental catastrophes in history. This disaster killed 11 rig workers, spilled over 200 million gallons of oil, fouled at least 1,300 miles of Gulf shoreline, endangered public health, and killed tens of thousands of birds, sea turtles, dolphins, and fish. This disaster revealed serious inadequacies in safety, regulation, and oversight in the offshore oil drilling industry”(Oceana). Not only do these explosions harm the workers or kill them but oil is also spilled into the water which can end up killing many animals and habitats. I don’t think these workers go into work and fear their whole worksite can explode at any given moment. Some workers actually think they are safe at work. A worker said, “Not only does it respond in times of crisis, but it also performs routine maintenance, cleaning, and disposal tasks”(Fox). The worker hasn’t seen any oil spills in all the years he’s been working on his site. This doesn’t mean the spills aren’t happening elsewhere. There are routine checks on all sites because if something happens they lose money. Although there are routine checks something can always happen which are unpredictable disasters. All routine checks do is make sure things are in order to a certain degree. They can’t really predict if things will go smoothly they would just hope for the best, which is dangerous.

Oil should stop being used because it pollutes the atmosphere and is not safe to work with. Oil gained its importance when it was discovered because people tried to find new ways to harness its energy. People made inventions specifically for that energy to power it up. This made oil become energy used everywhere which polluted the atmosphere severely. Back then oil wasn’t really regulated for the environment, it is now but it still releases toxic gas into the atmosphere. Oil opened up jobs but these jobs aren’t really the best because it isn’t all that safe to work at. Oil rigs can blow up at any moment if one thing is done wrong which is not somewhere people should work. Overall there should be a new source of energy to overtake oil, oil isn’t going to last long anyway so we might as well look for a better energy source now.

Growing up I used to watch a lot of cartoons. Television programs are meant to entertain their viewers by providing them with stories that would be appealing to them. My version of entertainment was pretending I was one of the characters and living their life. An example of this is when I used to watch Ben 10, I would pretend that I can turn into aliens like him and save the day. These kinds of vivid shows showed me from young there are tons of possibilities to reach the same goal. I also learned how imagination is more than something that is make-believe. You can do so much with that imagination whether it is art, poetry or even skits. Everyone has their own way of expressing their imagination which makes us all unique. 

I have this tendency to place myself in situations just to find a way out. By this I mean I would pretend I was in a scenario where something bad or good was to happen and then plot different outcomes of that. I like to think of them as “what if” scenarios. Due to me knowing that there are plenty of possibilities I try to exploit every single outcome and what brought me to that. I like to think of this as a skill of mine. I say skill because there are many times a scenario comes into effect and I have to find a way out of it. For example, I was in GameStop one day and I just felt very tense. I looked over to the side of the store and realized that there was a man just staring and me and he didn’t seem to be in his right mind. Of course, this happening made me feel uneasy and I tried to hurry up with my shopping and go home. While on the line I thought about being in this situation before and the outcomes. I decided to play one scenario out which was to lure him out. I walked out of the store normally and then began walking down a quiet street instead of the busy one. I looked in a car side mirror and saw the same man following me. This is when I turned the corner and ran up the block and across the street to another dark street and then ran down that block and made another right. I lost him easily and this was an accomplishment to me because I was able to see first-hand that the scenarios I make up can come to life. This had me questioning myself about what to do with this information. I never thought of myself as being creative, but this is exactly what creativity is. Then I thought I should try to use this in my writing. 

In my early years of school, I was terrible at writing. My main struggle was putting my thoughts into words and carrying my ideas out. To this day it’s hard for me to begin writing no matter the topic. I don’t know how to begin on an opening statement to begin the essay and I had to struggle year after year with it. When you’re in school you cannot escape writing, it’s as necessary as breathing. I never took it seriously because I just thought I was bad at it and I can do nothing about it. That all changed when I realized I have a bit of a creative side to me. Creativity stretches so far, no matter what you do you can either be plain and simple or creative. I struggled because I was the simple person and wrote the direct answer to any prompt given to me. Now trying to add creativity to my writing I birthed a new skill. 

My skill is being descriptive in my writing. I cannot just blab out one idea without putting my thought and feelings into it. Not only that but I describe the idea as best as I see it so the writer can also see what is see and feel what I feel. You can say that I began to care more about the reader rather than just answering questions. It’s more than just you, you can’t just write for yourself because then who will enjoy it. You can’t tell me you spend countless hours putting your thoughts on paper and don’t care what happens next with them. An example of this is getting your paper back from a teacher and realizing you failed. I used to hate seeing that I failed because I would put in all this effort and it would never be good enough. After incorporating my skill into my writing, I started seeing a drastic change in my grade. I started seeing that my writing had worth and it made me feel great and made me want to write more. Seeing this made me agree with a few articles I’ve come across. 

One of those articles happens to be “What Writers Really Do When They Write” by George Sanders. He wrote about his idea that your finished product should not be the same as what you started with. I totally agree with his thoughts. You can have a whole idea from the beginning and somehow you will end up switching up the idea. You won’t necessarily change the whole idea but the way the ideas flow. An example of this in my writing life is your number of drafts. When you write for school, they always require you to have at least two drafts. The first draft is to get all your ideas on one paper. After you get all your ideas out your mind is drained and that’s why there is peer editing. This allows you to get a reader’s feedback which is better than your own feedback because it isn’t biased. This editing shows you that your product isn’t perfect yet, so you must go back and fix your writing. When you go back and see what the reader wants to see you would alter your thoughts. The reason for this is the writing piece isn’t for you it’s for the reader. Once you see that and fix your writing, you’ll end up with an amazing final product that the reader wants to read.  

I’ve read another article I agree with by F. Scott Fitzgerald called “One Hundred False Starts”. Just by reading the title I had a feeling I would agree with the author. I felt that the author means that in order to reach your goal in your writing you will come across multiple trial and error. He even states that he writes for the readers. Although this is the case, I still disagree with one of his statements. He said, “we as authors repeat ourselves”, he claims authors only have two to three stories they tell and reword them in different ways to hide the fact that they’re the same. I disagree because I’ve never come across the same story twice. Also, if there is a different message from previous stories then it simply isn’t the same. By this I mean the story is guided by the message the author wants to convey and because of this, there would be different stories for the author to tell. I tell my stories not from my experiences but from what I can imagine. 

I doubt anyone has seen someone with superpowers save the world or life in outer space. Although this is the case, this is what I’m fascinated about and choose to write about. I feel that now if I write about things I’m fascinated about the readers will see my stories as I do. They would see your passion for these things and maybe they’re interested too. I try to not bore the readers with a bunch of nonsense because I hate when I must read something boring. An example of this is any English test I needed to take in school, it was always stories that went nowhere and not appealing to anyone and then you had to answer questions about it afterward. Due to this, I refrain myself from writing a story I wouldn’t read or my peer who’s editing wouldn’t read. What I’ve gathered over my years of writing is that your writing is never perfect because you grow all the time or go through something that changes your writing style.  

I see my writing going in different directions just based on how I’m feeling that day. Not only that but you can always turn it around and write about something you wished would happen. For example, if you face the death of someone close to you then you might write about it. The thing is you might put your character to face the same thing you did, or you can put your character to save the person. At the end of the day, it goes however you want it to go. I chose my direction based on how much thought I put into one way rather than the other. If I have more to say about one thing then I’d have a better story because there is so much I can say and not have to stretch my idea out. With this type of thinking I was able to write my best pieces and I know with more experience I will write even better.

Growing up I used to watch a lot of cartoons. Television programs are meant to entertain their viewers by providing them with stories that would be appealing to them. My version of entertainment was pretending I was one of the characters and living their life. An example of this is when I used to watch Ben 10, I would pretend that I can turn into aliens like him and save the day. These kinds of vivid shows showed me from young there are tons of possibilities to reach the same goal. I also learned how imagination is more than something that is make-believe. You can do so much with that imagination whether it is art, poetry or even skits. Everyone has their own way of expressing their imagination which makes us all unique. 

I have this tendency to place myself in situations just to find a way out. By this I mean I would pretend I was in a scenario where something bad or good was to happen and then plot different outcomes of that. I like to think of them as “what if” scenarios. Due to me knowing that there are plenty of possibilities I try to exploit every single outcome and what brought me to that. I like to think of this as a skill of mine. I say skill because there are many times a scenario comes into effect and I have to find a way out of it. For example, I was in GameStop one day and I just felt very tense. I looked over to the side of the store and realized that there was a man just staring and me and he didn’t seem to be in his right mind. Of course, this happening made me feel uneasy and I tried to hurry up with my shopping and go home. While on the line I thought about being in this situation before and the outcomes. I decided to play one scenario out which was to lure him out. I walked out of the store normally and then began walking down a quiet street instead of the busy one. I looked in a car side mirror and saw the same man following me. This is when I turned the corner and ran up the block and across the street to another dark street and then ran down that block and made another right. I lost him easily and this was an accomplishment to me because I was able to see first-hand that the scenarios I make up can come to life. This had me questioning myself about what to do with this information. I never thought of myself as being creative, but this is exactly what creativity is. Then I thought I should try to use this in my writing. 

In my early years of school, I was terrible at writing. My main struggle was putting my thoughts into words and carrying my ideas out. To this day it’s hard for me to begin writing no matter the topic. I don’t know how to begin on an opening statement to begin the essay and I had to struggle year after year with it. When you’re in school you cannot escape writing, it’s as necessary as breathing. I never took it seriously because I just thought I was bad at it and I can do nothing about it. That all changed when I realized I have a bit of a creative side to me. Creativity stretches so far, no matter what you do you can either be plain and simple or creative. I struggled because I was a simple person and wrote the direct answer to any prompt given to me. Now trying to add creativity to my writing I birthed a new skill. 

My skill is being descriptive in my writing. I cannot just blab out one idea without putting my thought and feelings into it. Not only that but I describe the idea as best as I see it so the writer can also see what is see and feel what I feel. You can say that I began to care more about the reader rather than just answering questions. It’s more than just you, you can’t just write for yourself because then who will enjoy it. You can’t tell me you spend countless hours putting your thoughts on paper and don’t care what happens next with them. An example of this is getting your paperback from a teacher and realizing you failed. I used to hate seeing that I failed because I would put in all this effort and it would never be good enough. After incorporating my skill into my writing, I started seeing a drastic change in my grade. I started seeing that my writing had worth and it made me feel great and made me want to write more. Seeing this made me agree with a few articles I’ve come across. 

One of those articles happens to be “What Writers Really Do When They Write” by George Sanders. He wrote about his idea that your finished product should not be the same as what you started with. I totally agree with his thoughts. You can have a whole idea from the beginning and somehow you will end up switching up the idea. You won’t necessarily change the whole idea but the way the ideas flow. An example of this in my writing life is your number of drafts. When you write for school, they always require you to have at least two drafts. The first draft is to get all your ideas on one paper. After you get all your ideas out your mind is drained and that’s why there is peer editing. This allows you to get a reader’s feedback which is better than your own feedback because it isn’t biased. This editing shows you that your product isn’t perfect yet, so you must go back and fix your writing. When you go back and see what the reader wants to see you would alter your thoughts. The reason for this is the writing piece isn’t for you it’s for the reader. Once you see that and fix your writing, you’ll end up with an amazing final product that the reader wants to read.  

I’ve read another article I agree with by F. Scott Fitzgerald called “One Hundred False Starts”. Just by reading the title I had a feeling I would agree with the author. I felt that the author means that in order to reach your goal in your writing you will come across multiple trial and error. He even states that he writes for the readers. Although this is the case, I still disagree with one of his statements. He said, “we as authors repeat ourselves”, he claims authors only have two to three stories they tell and reword them in different ways to hide the fact that they’re the same. I disagree because I’ve never come across the same story twice. Also, if there is a different message from previous stories then it simply isn’t the same. By this I mean the story is guided by the message the author wants to convey and because of this, there would be different stories for the author to tell. I tell my stories not from my experiences but from what I can imagine. 

I doubt anyone has seen someone with superpowers save the world or life in outer space. Although this is the case, this is what I’m fascinated about and choose to write about. I feel that now if I write about things I’m fascinated about the readers will see my stories as I do. They would see your passion for these things and maybe they’re interested too. I try to not bore the readers with a bunch of nonsense because I hate when I must read something boring. An example of this is an English test I needed to take in school, it was always stories that went nowhere and not appealing to anyone and then you had to answer questions about it afterward. Due to this, I refrain myself from writing a story I wouldn’t read or my peer who’s editing wouldn’t read. What I’ve gathered over my years of writing is that your writing is never perfect because you grow all the time or go through something that changes your writing style.  

I see my writing going in different directions just based on how I’m feeling that day. Not only that but you can always turn it around and write about something you wished would happen. For example, if you face the death of someone close to you then you might write about it. The thing is you might put your character to face the same thing you did, or you can put your character to save the person. At the end of the day, it goes, however, you want it to go. I chose my direction based on how much thought I put into one way rather than the other. If I have more to say about one thing then I’d have a better story because there is so much I can say and not have to stretch my idea out. With this type of thinking I was able to write my best pieces and I know with more experience I will write even better.