It is almost time for school to start for the current year.

I remember from third grade on getting the same assignment each year on the first day of school: write two pages about your summer vacation. 

I could have written it in a couple of sentences. 

Our family did the same thing every summer: a week’s visit to our grandparents, one week attending vacation Bible School, and the remaining days playing with friends in the neighborhood.

Year after year, it was the same old thing. Finally, in seventh grade, I complained to my teacher. 

She patiently explained that she was not so much interested in what we actually did. Her purpose in the assignment was to assess our writing skills.

She suggested I embellish a little…add some excitement. Even make up stuff.

Really?

I attacked the assignment with renewed vigor. Soon, my pages were filled with the vacation of all vacations. The setting: Acapulco. The characters: surfers I hung out with on the beaches. And, then I added a bit of romance and intrigue and—

That’s right. The two pages were filled all too quickly.

That’s when I realized that writing could be FUN and EXCITING.

Thanks to Mrs. Snyder, I found myself looking forward to the start of each school year—and the predictable writing assignment.

I had caught the “writing bug.” A plethora of possibilities had opened up for me.

And I haven’t exhausted them yet.

Care to share a writing story with us?