Introverted
In a school setting, I had the most challenging time making friends. At the time, I was a timid kid, so writing the truth would have everyone giving me that attention that I didn’t want.
When I was in elementary school, our teachers would have us write about our summer and then read it to the class. Usually, I would have an unorganized story that was all over the place about the average stuff I did, like going to the zoo or playing a new video game. Back then, most of my writings were about things I did while staying at my Dad’s for the summer, depending upon where my Dad was living at the time. I would travel across the country or a couple of states over. To me, writing about the time I had my Dad was both a little confusing. I vividly remember having fun and a hard time staying at my Dad’s house because I only saw him once or twice a year. While everyone in the class would talk about their trip to Disney or their cruise trip, I would try to make a problematic summer sound like something other than two months of being homesick. I always wondered how different my life would have been if I had spent my summer making friends. My Dad did his best to make sure each visit we had with him would be fun, like going to New York, DC, etc. The only thing I would do all summer while not busy was sit on my phone and watch Youtube. One year I got to go to Vidcon, where I met my favorite YouTubers. I made many new friends in my class after writing about my Vidcon trip. I wrote about Vidcon because it was what I had been grown up watching. All the nerdy stuff I liked didn’t show up on mainstream platforms. Youtube had offered a place to watch gameplay, tips, and comedic versions of everything I wanted. After watching those people for so long, they become the type of person you look up to, so meeting them made my summer that year.
What was writing to me?
The writing was an outlet for me. As I wrote about how I was feeling down on paper, I could say what I wanted without talking to someone. I loved writing essays back in my early years of school. They gave me this sense of creativity where I could express myself. Most other classes other than art didn’t have a creative aspect to the class. Writing about my summer will always be my first vivid memory of writing because of how important my summers were to me while growing up. I wish that it didn’t involve mine when writing these summer papers.
Gavin Schmitt
Student Writer - Spring 2022