Behind Enemy Lines
Writing to me is a battlefield. It is a constant struggle that threatens to eat me up if I am not too careful. Just like a battlefield, language and writing is colorful. It possesses power and it is sleek. Writing can sweep one along at a speed that is dizzying. It can change gears to climb a difficult hill. You can never be too careful with language and the art of writing. It is a struggle and a battlefield. Diction has to be well chosen and well utilized. If language is not well used it can rust from misuse or the brakes can just seize. However, with proper use, language can be an arsenal that can show you the best and easiest way to glide through life. Writing to me is esoteric as the tracking of electrons. I don’t hate English and writing, I just have to rack my brain seriously and put so much concentration when writing a piece. This paper would make sense if read by people who feels that writing is a battlefield like I do.
Sometimes writing in class can feel like a punishment. I have to struggle to get my ideas to flow. Writing to me is not a waterfall with beautiful waters flowing freely down a cliff or a beautiful evening stroll that helps relax the mind as one savors the beauty that is nature. No, writing to me is more of a struggle. It is not relaxing or beautiful. Neither does it offer any feeling of serenity like waterfalls or beautiful evening strolls does. Writing in class for me is more of a confusing act, just like the battlefields where gunshots are heard from every corner of the field.
Whenever I have to write a piece in class, I get this unsettling feeling that is so uncomfortable and scary. I don’t know why it happens. Maybe it is because of the uncertainty that comes with writing since one never knows how their work will be received. I know criticism especially positive criticism is constructive. However, I do not like criticism. It somehow undermines my feelings. I do not like to lose especially if I have chosen to do something and hoped for a positive outcome. It is no different to a battlefield where soldiers are made to go to the field and fight. I am convinced they do not like it that much. They too are scared and hope to win the battle. They would not like to lose since they know if they do they will probably never forgive themselves for the lives lost in the war.
Writing in class is a battlefield because every time I have to deal with it I see its evil eyes staring and glaring at me, scorning me and hissing at me. Writing silently screams its wickedness at my scared gaze and perfectly manages to manipulate what makes me sweat the most. It is as if it knows my weak points. It advances towards me brandishing its iron sword just like the soldiers on a battlefield and challenges me to a fight that it knows it is prone to win. It knows I might back off and when I take the slightest step backwards, it tortures me with a snide smile. It knows I get quite scared every time I have to face it and that what it uses to its advantage.
I struggle to come up with a good and creative story for an article whenever I have to write. I do not feel like I have much of an option when it comes to language and writing since language is a weapon. One must possess it to get through life. There are times when actions alone cannot speak louder than words. There are also times when actions, no matter how clear they are fail to be understood. And that is I know I have to make use of my weapon to get the message across. In as much as writing is not my hobby or something I would do as a part time activity, I know I need it for protection. Soldiers in the battlefields use shield to protect themselves against bullets and swords of their enemies. I use words to protect and shield myself whenever I get faced with a bad situation. I need to write to express my feelings and say what I cannot say in actions. It is just the same as soldiers who go to war because they gave warnings that were never taken seriously. They result to war to prove their point. But they do not do it just for the sake of doing it or just because they can, they do it because they have to. I too write because I must and not because I have to. Given a chance, I probably would choose to never write.
Every time I write in class, it is some kind of a risk I take. I do not know the outcome and the results of whatever I write. I do not like failing but one can never be too careful with these things. Sometimes I feel like I have done my best and given a piece of work all the best and as much effort as I could but sometimes, the results I get may not be too pleasant. That makes me dread writing the more. I hate giving my best and getting different results. When I give my best I hope for the best outcome. But then again, just like the soldiers in the battlefield, you can never be so sure. They too think they have tried their best to save lives but when they go back to their countries, it is a totally different story. People think they should have done more.
All in all, words, language and the art of writing is beautiful. It may be hectic, torture, painful and a constant struggle to some people like me but at the end of it all, when the beauty, feelings and meaning is captured in words, the pain disappears and all is bliss again. When you notice that all that fight was not for nothing and your struggle and constant perseverance despite the hardships finally pays off. It is like when the soldiers win a battle. All the pain, the tension and the fear goes away and they go back to their countries and countrymen feeling so proud.
