Since I started in Creative Writing, most of the time I sit around a table or a comfortable place, sharing my poem with a small group of people, where after analyzing it I receive useful feedback. I’ve improved a lot thanks to this community. Now I always make sure to show a great extent of my identity as a writer through deep thoughts and reflections of all kinds, or I just write because I need to as a way to vent anything I want to talk about. Basically, I’m a writer who likes to experiment with a variety of themes and formats, even more in poetry, the perfect way for my feelings to be projected. Although I feel very confident in my poetry skills, it’s been hard for me to vocally share my pieces the way I want to, so I don’t usually participate in Open Michaels, a class event where people share their poems vocally. I guess I’ve got used to keeping my words only on the pages where I know a limited amount of people will have access to them, and if I publish them I wouldn’t need to see new faces reacting to my performance.

 After summer, our grade was assigned to do a presentation about our identity where a poem was included and you had to read it out loud. Of course I was nervous because the poem I was presenting wasn’t memorized, different from shows where I correct my pronunciation and pauses to make sure everyone is able to understand. But then I realized that I’m a sophomore and in this community mistakes are more than forgiven. The day of the presentation when I was presenting my poem everything went smoothly, and I received a lot of constructive and positive feedback from everyone. As always, not everything was perfect, but I was able to get off my chest something that mattered to me without solely sticking to a few people. This was the start where part of my poetry changed to be more performative, and I love it.

 You don’t need to wait for a workshop to share your message, at any place and time you can take out your piece of work and start reciting. I can’t wait for the part of the year where Open Michaels are scheduled. As writers we might always have doubts about our work, but trust me, in this community everyone will always support you and try to help you overcome those struggles. Over time you will be able to build a lot of confidence and encouragement not only toward your work but also toward yourself.