Today I had another meeting with my Creative Writing Club. Every month we have an Open Mic Night, where we as students can submit our original works in Google Forms to read aloud to the group. In celebration of April, National Poetry Month, every presentation for today’s meeting was a poem or another short form of writing.

School is almost over, this is the last open mic night of the year, and I had never shared any of my original work with the group. Due to these factors, I thought this was the perfect opportunity to get the exposure that I needed.

I decided to use the poem that I wrote for International Women’s Day, “Words to Women” as my selection. And sure enough, when the club leader announced who would be speaking today, I saw my name as number 5 on the list.

Although I was nervous about the whole thing going into it, I became more relaxed as I heard each student read their original works. A majority of the poems were about self confidence or female empowerment, and they all seemed to connect to each other in some way, which I thought was really cool.

What I love about this club so much is that it gives me an opportunity to meet people who love to write, just like me. Not only did tonight’s meeting give me a chance to learn and gain inspiration from others’ work, but I was even able to share what I liked about each poem, and provide positive constructive criticism if the author requested it.

When it was my turn to read my poem, the whole thing went by very smoothly–I knew that what I had wrote was good. I was a little shocked at the flood of positive feedback that popped up in the chat. Many of the other club members repeated a quote of the poem that identified with them or gave positive comments such as how they liked how I talked about our differences and how they make each of us beautiful.

One of the most rewarding parts of being a writer is knowing that your work was able to touch a person and remind them of themselves. Poetry can be interpreted in many different ways. And one sentence can hold a lot of power.

Overall, I shared this with you all today to remind you that it’s good to step out of your comfort zone, from time to time; it feels so good to know that you conquered a past fear or challenge of yours.

Some things can be nerve wracking to think about doing, especially when that something is sharing your original work in front of an audience. However, when we are doing something that makes us nervous, it shows that we care. Not to mention that it gives us room to grow as people.

I hope this was able to inspire you, today. Don’t forget to be thankful for every moment, because we never know which one will be our last. May God bless you all; peace in! ♡