Write Stuff Cafe

Greatness from small beginnings.

Equating life experiences to Latin phrases is an automatic for me. So is looking up the Latin roots of words. When we were growing up, my mom, the eternal Latin teacher, was always reminding us of where words came from. It’s hard to not look at a word and wonder where it originated. The Latin root word for finishing is finis, which means end, limit, or boundary. The word completion comes from the Latin complere, meaning to fill up, complete or make up. When I think about completion, the next word that pops into my head is accomplish. When I think of finishing, the next word I see is final. As I come to an ending of sorts, ending my publishing track, ending my internship, ending my coursework, I am choosing to focus more on the word completion and less on the word finishing. I am reflecting on what I have accomplished so far, not on limits or boundaries or finalities.

When I was in sixth grade, Mrs. Simmons recognized that I was a writer. I didn’t see myself as a writer, but she did. She encouraged me to write letters to the editor of our local newspaper. She gave me feedback on my writing and showed me how to get my words out and then make them better. She pushed me to enter writing contests. Back in 1980-something, one of those contests was to write about what writing would be like in the year 2000. I spent some time hunting through my writing files (actually piles) in my home library. My dad has been purging our childhood home and I continue to take in all the things that mom saved over the years. I know I have this writing piece somewhere. In my head, I can see my somewhat neat handwriting where every time I wrote the year 2000 in the essay, I wrote it to look like a digital printout. Forty years later, and I am able to read through my digital writing files in the year 2025. Forty years later, and I am able to log into Submittable and read all kinds of writing submissions for Forge Magazine. If only I could go back and tell that wide-eyed, eager girl…just wait until you see what writing will be like in the year 2000 and beyond!

Greatness from small beginnings.

When I was in high school, I took all the AP courses, AP biology, AP English, AP History. I also took classes like ceramics and studio art. I learned the structures, memorized the content, and got good at regurgitating it all back to the teachers , but I loved to create and design and break the molds. I liked to experiment with my words and projects. I was taught to write the five paragraph essay, but I never liked being forced into that structure. I remember turning in an essay to my AP History teacher, Mrs. Infantino. Apparently the AP exam people liked for students to always write a certain way. I just couldn’t do that. So I wrote my type of essay about Reconstruction where I wove in a story of a Monarch butterfly going through metamorphosis. That was not what all of the example essays had looked like. I took a risk and chose to make my own structure. I remember my teacher being impressed and asking if she could keep a copy to share with future AP students. If only I could go back and tell that mold-breaking young lady…just wait to see the stories you will weave together, the structures you will try out and make your own!

Greatness from small beginnings.

When I decided to become a teacher and get my Master’s, I didn’t get a degree in Education. That was the path most people followed, but I wanted a different route. I got a Master’s in Science in Child Development. As educators, we get to witness children developing every day. After many years in education, as a teacher and a school leader, many of my leadership colleagues began their work on PhD’s in education related programs. I thought about it, and then I applied for the MFA program at Bay Path. It’s not lost on me that I chose a college that has path in it’s name. Since I was a little girl, I have been choosing my own path. Now, when everyone else has said I should be thinking about a dissertation or academic writing, I have chosen to prepare myself for writing a thesis, narrative writing. I have accomplished a lot in the courses I have taken. I have filled up writing journals and my Google folder. I never felt like I had limits or boundaries that I had to stay within. During my internship with Forge, I got a glimpse of the opportunities and the limitless potential stories that are being written every day by writers just like me.

Greatness from small beginnings.

I have had so many small beginnings in my life. This moment. This post. This semester. This past year. They are all small beginnings. In the fall, I will have yet another small beginning as a start my thesis work. When you add up all the small beginnings of the past and include the small beginnings of the future, I can see the greatness and it is pretty amazing.

This is not an ending, it’s a filling up.

Hey mom, sic parvis magna!