SELVES by Bear Yovino

I plan to release my collection of essays, short stories and poetry in one work titled, SELVES. The release date will be on my 36th birthday, November 15.

We are constantly learning about ourselves, conscious or not, everyday.  As a writer, I am always working on better ways to present my morals, values, and messages. For some, an essay that may consist of writing personally about oneself may be difficult. In lieu, I thrive on writing such personal content with the intent to show the interconnectedness of everything. I want to show my readers how simple it is to understand life, the importance of communication, and how to just be you. It is most important that in my writing, I see me for who I am, and I know it is real. I believe the course study in life management has opened a new door for me to continue exploring my writing potential. Moreover, I have learned a great deal about my writing strengths, writing weaknesses, and how I can use writing and communication in the future.

For the most part, my writing strengths were developed at an early age. However, I agree with the traditional notion that “practice makes perfect.” Understanding myself through writing gave me the opportunity to explore my idea that everything does connect to everything, and in one way or another, allowed me to prove it when my pen hit the paper. This was not easy. But through this little study of mine, I learned a great deal about my writing strengths. I learned that my thesis statements are well-worded and clearly imply the direction my essays take without needing an essay map. The topics that I choose are interesting; they work well to get the reader’s attention, they give the reader a sense of connection, and they contain ideas most everyone can relate to. I have learned that my paragraphs are generally well-organized and nicely developed, which makes my essays easy to read. My ideas are logical, well-developed, and very detailed. According to Richard Marius in Writing Drafts, writers often start an essay with one topic in mind only to discover that another pushes the first one aside as they work. Ideas you had not even thought of before you began to write may pile onto your paper, and five or six pages into your first draft you may realize that you are going to write about something you did not imagine when you started. If I take a stand on a certain issue, I take nearly all possible aspects of the issue into account effectively. Furthermore, I display very effective idea generations, excellent draft developments, and good use of transitions to keep the essays flowing smoothly.

Sometimes as you write, you may develop a perfect paragraph or sentence that has absolutely nothing to do with your topic. To remove something unnecessary from a piece of writing is a true test of a writer. I find that removing something unnecessary from an essay is quite difficult. Usually I find myself not developing unnecessary sentences, but sentences that are worded vaguely and awkwardly. My high school English teacher called this type of weakness “writing way out there.” Sometimes I have found myself even using the wrong verb tense for a particular sentence. More so, I have placed commas outside of a quotation versus inside. Almost every paper I have written included this mistake. Another weakness I have found amongst my essays is the need to watch my proofreading. I often find myself overlooking missing letters, typos, and even a missing word or two. On some occasions I tend not to be as clear as I could have been, which in one way or another, connects back to “unnecessary writing.” I have learned that some paragraphs tend to get a little long and must be broken up at logical points to preserve overall balance of the paragraph length in my essays. Also the need for a semi-colon within certain sentences has been a notable weakness. Without a semi-colon, some of my sentences become fragments, which takes away from essays running smoothly.

For the most part my weaknesses have become strengths. We are constantly learning about ourselves, conscious or not, everyday. With the help of writing, I have been able connect myself with all that exists, and found them to be somewhat of guide for self-education. Now, every time I write about my thought, I see me for who I am, and I know it is real. Writing has been one of many major outlets for me as an individual. It has brought forth new challenges and critical analyses to better myself as an individual first and an aspiring writer second. This understanding was just another branch on the tree. I can apply this knowledge in everything I continue to do. Be it in communicating with others or even feeling more secure as an individual, this new knowledge can only be for the betterment of all. I can either break the branch or watch it grow.

Furthermore, in respect for understanding strength, one must respect awareness of weakness. There must be a balance to grow from. While I continue to manage myself mentally and spiritually, weakness only has room to develop strength, which in turn leaves room for a new weakness to become strength. I call this the cycle of growth, and it is an example of how everything connects to everything. Frederick Douglas once said that without struggle there is no progress. As I stated, this understanding was one more step in the process of becoming a stronger individual, writer, and communicator. Through it I have learned a great deal about my writing strengths, writing weaknesses, and how I can use writing and communication in the future. And for communication to have meaning, it must have life. It must transcend “you and I” and become “us.” If we truly communicate, we see in others a life that is not ours and partake of it. In addition, others see and partake of us. We then grow out of our old selves and become something new: rebirth, if you will. We must give ourselves to the relationship, and be willing to become what grows out of it. As Richard Marius says, “Sit down and write. And write, and write, and write.”