I’ve been gone for a minute. I haven’t been gone; I’ve just focused on things other than writing. Now I’m back and focused on all things writing. So allow me to reintroduce myself. My first name is Arnittress (r-knee-tress), my mom made it up. I’m the youngest child on both my mother’s and my father’s side. I have an older sister, and I had two brothers; one passed away on my mom’s side, and I have three brothers on my father’s side. There’s a 12-year difference between me and my older siblings on both sides. So when I say I’m the baby, I’m the baby. I am a mother to two boys, 15 (very soon to be 16) and a 13 (very soon to be 14).
I’ve been creatively writing for 39 years. I fell in love with writing via poetry. This might take some people back; these new millennials won’t have a clue. But back when I was in elementary school, we got textbooks for every class that we had to bring home to cover with a paper bag or newspaper. For English class, I would always open the textbook and go straight to the table of contents to see the titles of stories that we may or may not read. The titles that stood out the most to me were the poetry titles. Once I got the book home, I actually read the poetry section. After reading the different poems, I thought it was so cool how the poet could express a feeling, describe an emotion, or even create a scene. I eventually learned that you could tell a story through poetry. Those things made me fall in love with creative writing.
My brother on my mother’s side passed away, and for me to express myself, I wrote about it in the form of a poem. As I got older, I learned that writing was how I expressed myself. I began to journal, and I’d write poems for my mother. When I wrote letters to friends and family, they were literally four page letters, front to back 1, front to back 2……
So it’s not really me loving to write creatively, but also loving to write….
Arnittress Dowdy 