As a creative writer I have become used to the idea that sometimes you’re thoughts cannot be fully understood through regular speech. There are some things that can only be conveyed through the written word and sometimes you really need someone there that understands what you are trying to say, but need that one word that makes the whole thing better. The NESA Creative Writing program is more than your average high school english class. It has allowed people from varrying backgrounds, personalities and so on to come together and learn more about writing and literature. That is what is truly unique about it, a group of people with a common interest that accept each other because of that similarity and that connection they can make with those other people.

For a lot of us, the chaotic, dark, interesting creative writing room is a haven. It holds books, and films and spaces for us to come together or go off into our own worlds without worry. There is the ability to have random conversations you might not typically be able to have with a group that is thrown together by the system over deep, complicated topics that you all understand simply because you are all on the same page. Plus, to be able to get the input you need in order to grow with your work. My take on it is that if you have the time and opportunity to let your work be seen and your skills properly appreciated, you can grow in more ways than one. We are given the freedom, and at the same time the discipline, to create original pieces that a normal high school most likely cannot offer in the same way.

Although I am only in my second year in the program I have seen the change in the other writers, they have all matured, and come out of their shells through their writing. Almost all of us can’t go though the day without knowing that creative writing is there for us, to think, and write and converse on whatever it is that the day calls for. I can really only speak for one major, but I know the feeling is mutual when it comes to how much we enjoy our classes. As a whole, I can only really describe the program and the environment as that of a family. We know that the other majors have our back, even if individuals will get on other’s nerves or annoy the heck out of us. There is an absolute acceptance between everyone. Out of large groups of people, we gravitate toward eachother, not out of snobbery, but because there is absolute support and acceptance.