Pride can be a finicky thing, you can have and be proud of your work, but too much pride can make it hard to learn from mistakes as well. While in my senior year, I look back on the many mistakes I have made and realize that speaking on one specific mistake can help incoming freshman and budding writers alike.
In short, I hate getting help on most things, and at one point it was a definite problem. That problem came to a head during my junior year of college while in my first year of internship with Jamie\’s Notebook and taking 18 class hours.
While at the same time taking on more than I feasibly could, I refused to accept any assistance on the basis that I had been trying to prove that I could do without it. As one could tell, the ending to that story was not pretty. I temporarily ended my internship with Jamie’s Notebook, keeping focus on even the smallest thing was hard, and my writing at the time was dreadful.
That prideful method of thinking lead to several missteps but the time after is what I would like to focus on. Through my experience, I came to the realization that my pride let people down. My writing was not getting better faster while at the same time my grades were not as good as they could be and that frustrated me more than getting a little help.
For writers, our craft says something about who we are. With that said, being prideful and writing at the same time does not work. I realized that my writing got better with not only the use of applications like Grammarly but also taking up a book each month and reading advice given by my boss at Jamie\’s Notebook.
If being an author or journalist is the path you wish to take, always look for methods to enhance your writing even if you think it needs none. You will be surprised by what you find.