I found chapter three "Why I Write" interesting at the get go... I hadn't really thought about my own personal reasons for writing in a long time. My third grade school teacher required daily journal writing, I don't remember if we wrote in class or at home however, I started keeping personal journals up until I was around 13 years old. I stopped writing and keeping journals then because my mother read my private writings and I was disciplined for secrets that I thought would only belong to me. When Timothy McCarthy referenced what his grandmother might say, "unfit for polite company" I immediately remembered the harsh judgment I had experienced as a teenager. He goes on to say that he suspects this might be why so many people do not keep one. (pg.28) Somewhere I read later in life that "only a fool writes stuff down" ...As an adult I think journaling can be an important tool to get to know oneself.
I believe writing has a tremendous amount of personal power. I write lists, goals, quotes, things I want to remember, poems, but, I have not written anything for public influence (on purpose anyway). I like the aspect of being of the world but not in it (as Timothy McCarthy says) when writing!
Ernest Hemingway
