Who Am I Really?

This is the first post in response to the challenge to members to write a post themed after their passions for writing.

WHO AM I REALLY?
Mary Lou Moran

One of the first things I tried when I moved to the Village was writing. I started writing back in Nebraska after a particularly tragic death in my family. Three months before my son was to be married, his fiancé was killed in a car accident.

Not only did I grieve for a lost daughter, but I had to watch my son's heart break. My husband and I stood with our son at our daughter-in-law's grave on what would have been their wedding day.

How does anyone get over something like that? I chose to write about it. And the more I wrote, the more I healed. I started with a journal, wrote poetry and essays, but never shared these with anyone, until I moved to the Village.

Writing opened up a whole new world for me. I joined the Writers’ Club, participated in a critique group and started entering contests. It was scary at first, because I was afraid the feedback would be that I shouldn’t be writing. That would have devastated me, because I love it so much.

I made a conscious decision to put tragedy behind me and started writing humor. Erma Bombeck had always been one of my favs. She became my inspiration as I started writing about everyday events and trying the see the humor in them. I found I had a knack for it and I was off and running.

I joined a readers’ theater group to help get over the fear of speaking to groups. But theater turned out to have other benefits. Acting is not possible without getting into character and, as it turns out, neither is writing. So, acting helped me break out of my shell and also develop better characters and dialogue. To date, I have written many skits and plays for senior theater, took a stab at writing a book of short plays, and couple of dinner theater plays. Anything is possible now, and I am having the time of my life.

            Who am I really? Among other things, I'm a writer and I love it.