Just write.

   So today is the national day of writing. I had borrowed my mom's old typewriter to show my students, but thought it would be fun to do my blog post for the week on it.
   Fun. Lol.
   Already realizing that the apostrophe isn't where it is supposed to be.
   That there is not an ENTER button or text-wrap or backspace key that I can fix my typos with.
   That if I go too fast, the metal arms with the letters on them will overlap and get stuck.
   And that my hand and arm muscles are already sore from having to press, aka pound, the keys down.
   But this is where I started to write. I think I was 8 when I asked Santa for a typewriter for Christmas. I got a kid's one and typed so many stories and poems on it. (OMG I just realized there isn't an exclamation mark on this keyboard. On my laptop, it's one of the most worn out keys haha.)

   That typewriter made me feel like a writer. Or I should say, i was a writer with my typewriter. I submitted and had work published in the kids' section of the Western Producer. I even remember my pen name: Tytto, which means 'girl' in Finn. 
   In grade 5, our SRC sponsored a poetry contest for the school. I wrote one about a Rubik's cube. (It was the 1980s...)
   I won $15 and bought myself a clock radio. Giant swaths of my life, I don't remember, but that sticks.
  
   I loved writing.
   Correction: I love writing.
   When I feel like I have words bursting out of me, I write. When I'm sad or frustrated or just having feelings like human beings do, I write.
   Sometimes there are even other human beings on the receiving end of those words. And sometimes, there is not. Sometimes I just keep them for me.
   Some words are not meant to be shared. They are meant to be saved.
   Savored.
   Imagined.
   
   And sometimes they are just sat on. Waiting. In that in between space where I'm trying to decide if they are just for me, or if they are meant to go out into the universe.
   A lot of my blog ideas reside in that space. (Again, where is that exclamation point???)
   We talk frequently about the power of words in class. The power to hurt, or heal. How really strong writing will take us to places we will never go, or to feel things that we may not have yet felt. The power to explain, describe, persuade, and to go beyond its power to empower. To let others know they are not alone.
   To share my writing and not feel so alone myself.

   I can't see where the bottom of the page is, but I know it is near...happy writing day everyone. And have a great Education Week. (Don't doubt the important work we do. Again, where is that exclamation point when you need it lol.)
Edla.