Statement of Interest

Elora Apantaku 2011

When I was in fifth grade my friends and I used to play this game during recess. We'd all pretend we were fairies with different powers. I fondly remember wearing purple to class so I'd be better able to portray my character when class let out in the middle of the day. I bring up this moment in my life because it's what inspired me to start writing things longer than a few pages--it inspired me to write a novel.

Of course, I never did. I was too self conscious about what I wrote to ever be able to finish it, even though I set locks on the word document so my sneaky sisters couldn't read it when I left our computer unattended. Entering into junior high, I kept writing a secret. I excelled in my science classes, joined Science Olympiad, and was at the time one of the best swimmers in the state of Illinois. But I was happiest when my sixth grade teacher let us loose into the computer lab to free write. Some kids were satisfied to write a page or two. I wrote and printed so much I became conscious of my effects on the environment.

In eighth grade, when I was the sole student in our grade to get an A+ on a descriptive piece about candy bars from the sour lipped Dr. Carpenter (the fact that he was the only doctor teaching at our school made the class much more intimidating) I thought I must've been the best writer in the world. I made my class listen to me read over the details of my dream house essay for two class periods. My parents wanted to publish one of my short stories.

I was only humbled when high school teachers started assigning actual essays. I had never before thought for extended periods of time about what to write--I had always just written. I had never relied on brainstorming before, figuring the answers would somehow find themselves on the page. And I struggled with this new concept of claim, evidence, and warrant. I felt the frustration of not knowing how to start, to continue, or to finish. But practice makes perfect. Once I discovered how to successfully write papers, my thoughts on writing anything and everything turned from dread to excitement. I want to be able to give that feeling to my peers. In times of crisis and fear people turn to the writing center, and I would like to be part of the solution.

My love for science hasn't dissipated over the years either; I have a wide range of writing and analytical skills from a biology concentration that requires lab reports on an almost weekly basis. What I've learned from my writing courses I have injected into my science courses and vice versa, and I believe this hybridization of interdisciplinary skills has allowed me to produce A papers all around.

I have heard from current and past writing consultants that working at the writing center has greatly improved their own writing abilities. I believe this is true having a similar experience this past summer instructing small children how to swim. Although I have swam for fourteen years, and although I have been an All-American swimmer, I still found that going through the basics with children, and discovering where they faced the greatest difficulties in their strokes, gave me insight into how I approached my own swimming.

I can only hope that working in the writing center will give me a similar insight into my own writing, which I am constantly trying to improve, because I still love writing. Filled with cautious optimism and humility, I finally wrote my first novel, 105 single spaced pages in a word document, at the age of eighteen. And although it has nothing to do with fairies, I think my eleven year old self would be happy with the final product.