| Description |
My answer to 'What do you want to be when you grow up?' has gone through many phases. "A chef from the Harvard Chef School" was my first answer, according to Mom. Author was my next choice. I had been reading Ronald Dahl stories. My fireman stage was short-lived. Concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony and benchwarmer for the Boston Celtics were two career options that turned out not to be options. I wanted to be a dentist until I took biology. I wanted to fly airplanes until I went on a roller coaster. Author was my next choice. I had been reading David James Duncan novels. I realized that I had a few stories to tell and ifI called them fiction I could exaggerate. This project was intended to be a workshop of creative writing. I had written short stories before, but I wanted also to begin a novel, write a short screenplay and experience the process of a personal essay. Lagniappe is a Cajun word that means "a little of dis, a little of dat." So my small collection bears that title. Each project was enjoyable and educational for me. The personal essay, however, stands out as a constructive learning experience. Having written myriad essays for school assignments, I felt like this would be my easiest work of the bunch. So I wrote what I supposed would be my opus magnum, only to hear from my advisor that it just "didn't work." I had approached it as a form of creative expression for what was, to me, a pressing matter. Through discussions with my advisor and consultation of relevant texts, I approached my next attempt as a process of discovery. I began typing without knowing where I was going. I recall moments of sitting at the computer with a phrase coming into my mind that seemed wholly out of context. I forced myself to type it out to see where it led. The result is included as the last piece in the lagniappe. Writing, then, through this project has become a medium of discovery and not solely of expression. This has changed my approach to academic papers as I have begun writing the body text before constructing the thesis in order to discover what that thesis will be. So whether I become a career author or need to resort to chef school, writing will forever be a useful tool and enjoyable activity in my life. |
