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Let me just start of by saying poetry is not my strong suit, and it's a fact I've come to terms with and accepted. In English II last year I had to write a poem for an honors assignment, and that proved my greatest challenge for that semester.
One Sunday night, I believe in February or early March of 2014, I was forced to go to a youth bible study session thing at a friends of my parents house. That particular night I wore my Winner Nanowrimo 2013 shirt (which I had actually win that year), which sparked a friend and I's writing conversation. Turns out she was also in the same Creative Writing Group as moi, which was awesome, for it was an online ordeal and I rarely spoke to anyone on there. She then mentioned NaPoWriMo, which i had never heard of before. But nerveless, a club meeting a week or two later, NaPo was brought up.
In March I went through a very hard time. The event had to be done, but it left me torn and broken on the floor. I remember last St. Patricks day I stopped crying enough to peel myself off the floor and eat corn beef, which was flavorless on my tongue. I felt severely alone and scared, and anxious; It was a terrible ordeal for me and I needed a distraction. So as soon as I heard about NaPoWriMo and what it was, I signed on to participate along with my creative writing group.
Camp NaNoWriMo was something already brought to my attention before I ever heard about NaPo, and I had already planned on participating in the April session also, continue working on the novel I had flew into during NaNoWriMo in November.
April started off kind of slow. I was still in a great state of emotional turmoil, still trying to pull myself together. The writing group had a blog in which I took advantage of at this time. In order to official win on their account, you had to post thirty poems within the thirty days to the forums. Each day a new writing prompt was posted to the blog and you commented your submission, whether it be with the prompt or not.
I am not one for routine, or daily routines, so writing a poem a day fell off fast, and by mid April I had a growing pile of prompted poems to write. But that's what made it even more fun.
My friend also participated in NaPo, and we talked quite frequently then, and it was really cool to see her poems on the forums and to read everyone elses, and to talk about the prompts and poems with her elsewhere.
I stayed with the prompts for the entire month, though I had written a few poems along side that I kept to myself. What was nerve wrecking was posting my poems to the forums. As I mentioned earlier, I am not strong suited in poetry, and I evidently really suck at it. Posting my poems for others to read, un-anonymous, scared the crap out of me, especially when one of my friends would read it. But I needed this, I needed to do it. And so I did. And it was great.
The fear of being judged, of whatever irrational, anxious thought that coursed through my head, died down the more I posted my poems each day (or in abundance in one day). It was thrilling, and I was happy.
During the month of April, also things personally calmed down and things mended there way together, and so I felt better and was doing better. But I will never forget my choice of doing this. Of doing something I sucked at. At being presented with a challenge like NaPo, at writing poetry, a skill I very much lacked, and taking up the challenge because it was just that, a challenge, and I didn't coward away. Not only that, but I posted them to the internet, to be read by the entire group. It was bliss. It was a decision I never regretted, and one I never will.
Through the rest of April I had all the prompts written on a piece of note paper with bacon on it, in which I would track down all the unwritten prompts on my part, and cross off when I had published them to the blog forums. I had a notebook that I used where I would sit on my bed, on my desk, even outside lounging on a wicker chair in the hot weather.
I did a lot of research to learn how to write different forms of poems that went along with the prompts each day. I still don't exactly grasp how to write an Ode.... nevertheless I tried my best, and posted it!
Also research went into finding words that rhymed with my desired word...
On April 30th, I submitted my 30th poem on the forum with the weight of what turned into a great month, and great experience, to live on with me forever.
It is one of the most memorable times of my life. It was a terrible time turned good. So good I couldn't wait to do it this year. Unavoidably, I moved out of state that summer, and so I do not have the writing club to join in this year with, which honestly saddens me. But if I learned anything last year, I will not let negative events trump a potentially great experience.
As for Aprils session of Camp NaNoWriMo 2014, I wish I could say it was as equal as a great experience. To be honest, I gave up about two weeks in, haha. I made the mistake by continuing on with my novel on the same document, so I had to jot down my word count before I wrote, and after. Me being me, I didn't always jot down, or memorize, or even write down my saving point, so everything got confusing. Tip to you: if you're continuing on with an already written story, start in a new document; its easier to track your progress. Take it from me.
Also, I wasn't too pleased with my cabin. Nothing wrong with the people except for the fact I was the youngest, by at least five year at the least. This was before I really checked out the cabin settings, in which you have the option of age range, and so I was the only high schooler with a bunch of people who are in legal drinking age. Yeah I as a quitter, but hey, I had NaPoWriMo.
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