The Beginning of Something Great

I chose to write about a new poem that I've written each week because, in recent years it has actually become one of my favorite things to do in my spare time. Not that I want to sound any less macho but I tend to think of writing poetry as an in depth emotional expression of one's inner self. A guy like me  does need some kind of hobby besides being exceptionally handsome, am I right? As far as how I got started writing poetry, it's kind of a funny story. I was in my senior year of high school and if I remember correctly it was also my first semester of high school that year. I had gone down to the first floor to talk to my school counselor in order to make sure I was registered early for some super easy classes. What I didn't expect was that one of the gym classes I was registered for was actually full. I had two classes to choose from after that. I had to choose from either Spanish or Creative writing. I'm not sure if you've ever tried to learn how to speak a foreign language but I wasn't about to spend my last year of high school trying to learn a new language that I honestly had no intention on really learning. That's when I made the decision to go ahead and give the whole Creative writing class a shot. How hard could it really be? 

My teacher's name was Mr. Vincent and I had never actually met him in person before. All I really knew of him was that he was the voice of Elmer Engel Stadium. Basically, he was the announcer of the football games at Bay City Central High School. When I first met him, I imagined him being a bit taller considering his god like voice but he was only about 5'7'' and weighed about 180 lbs. I actually mentioned this to him and he replied with "That's what everybody says when they first meet me!" Finally, it came time for Mr. Vincent to give us our first project of the semester. I was expecting to write a short story or something easy. As soon as he said the word poetry, I instantly thought "How macho". He instructed us that we had to write twelve poems that were up close and personal. I actually dreaded the assignment because, I had no idea how I would even start it. After hours of just starring at a blank screen something just clicked. I finally let my inner wall of masculinity down and proceeded to write about my past experiences. I probably didn't realize it at the time but that's the moment when poetry became a part of my life.