Forget what hurt you in the past, But never forget what it taught you!
The quote for today is a great springboard for writing a personal essay. A personal essay is a piece of nonfiction writing that shares a personal experience and shows what the writer learned or illustrates a universal truth. Think about it. Your many life experiences leave the personal essay menu wide open.
A couple days ago, I attended a zoom meeting with other writers. The host for the evening had us write about an argument we'd had with someone at some time in our life. The second part was to write the same story, or experience, from the other person's viewpoint. There might have been some guesswork in this part of the exercise. The third thing we did was to add sensory details, which made our writing more powerful. It was a good exercise, and it got me to thinking about writing the personal essay and the anonymous quote above. After all, if we argue with someone, there is going to be hurt involved.
We hope that in whatever difficult times we've faced in life, we did learn something. Perhaps about ourselves and about other people. The quote also tells us to forget what hurt us in the past, but that's not always easy to do. Those hurts, big or little, tend to stay in our minds. Writing about them helps us understand the situation, helps us to move on, and helps us to add to our writing portfolio. I believe that writing about a hurtful situation can be a step in the healing process.
It might also give some insight to those who read what we've written. The reader might be able to relate a similar experience to the one you've written about.
It's not merely a report. This happened, then that happened, then this happened. You want to show the reader what you experienced and how it affected you, as well as what you learned. Remember that showing vs telling is always preferable. Adding sensory details brings your experience to life, so do spend some time adding those details.
Do you have to finish the personal essay with a paragraph that begins with...'I learned that....'? No, you do not. Of course, you can, but it's not mandatory. You can show the lesson without actually naming it or specifically saying I learned...
You might try the exercise I mentioned about recreating an argument you had with someone, in the three steps noted above. There are all kinds of arguments people have. Some are life turning while others are rather insignificant in the overall scheme of things.
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