Career Day

Recently I was invited to participate in “Career Day” at our middle school. I was told that I would meet with approximately 18 to 25 eighth graders for 45 minutes to discuss the merits of being a writer. These would be students who had an interest in meeting a writer.

45 minutes? What could I possibly talk about for 45 minutes? Although I spent years demonstrating kitchen tools for Pampered Chef (for much longer than 45 minutes at a time) my hands were always busy chopping onions or pressing garlic. Could I fill that much time with eighth graders? And more importantly…would they like me?
A friend of mine participated in Career Day last year and told me not to worry. She assured me that the kids would have so many questions there would probably not be enough time to answer them all. Still, I figured it was best to be prepared. Better to have more information than risk any dull, awkward pauses.

In preparation for my talk, I found a comprehensive list of writing professions from a writing website. The list described the different career paths a writer could follow, including columnist, journalist, songwriter and novelist among others. Prudently, I decided to omit the paragraph about writing Erotica (with my luck, that would be the thing that prompted the most questions, not to mention a few angry phone calls from parents). I compiled a list of websites for young writers, places where their work could be posted and critiqued by other teenagers, adding a few sites where they could start their own blogs. And finally, I bought 25 pocket-sized notebooks, an essential tool for any budding writer who wants to keep track of ideas.

Finally, Career Day arrived. I set up all my materials in the front of the classroom as the kids filed in. Once they were seated, I decided to break the ice. “I had a dream last night, “I began. “In my dream, I talked for about 5 minutes. The next 40 minutes went something like this…” At this point I pressed a button on my iPhone which played a sound effect of crickets chirping. I expected this would crack them up.

Instead all I heard was…crickets.

Hmm, tough crowd. Moving down my agenda, I talked about my background as a writer: creative writing classes in college, scriptwriting for film and video, my blogs and my weekly column. I asked them to share their favorite writers (most said “pass” but several listed J.K. Rowling, Stephanie Meyer and J.R.R. Tolkien.) I shared with them the five things I felt were important to becoming a writer (Read, Write, Edit, Share and Publish). I handed out my lists of writing professions and the resources I had compiled. I did everything but sing, dance and stand on my head, hoping to get a reaction from the students.

And still…crickets.

Finally, with 15 minutes left and still no questions for me (I was going to kill my friend!) I said, “Ok. Take out a pencil and a sheet of paper. You’re going to spend 10 minutes doing what I do every week. Pick a subject and write about it.” I could almost hear the internal groans. As the kids worked to fill their paper, I sought out their English teacher and expressed admiration for his ability to do this on a daily basis.

With just five minutes left in class, I asked if anyone would like to read their paper aloud. As you can imagine, those pesky crickets began chirping again. I told the kids to pass their papers to the front, and then read several of them aloud (keeping the writers anonymous). At the end of class, I told the students they could retrieve their papers or leave them for me. Not a single student took their paper back.

As I left the middle school, I commiserated with another parent about how tough it was to elicit a reaction from the kids. The other parent was a Special Ed teacher who showed her kids how to read and write Braille. She brought candy buttons in for the kids to write their own names. “What a great idea.” I exclaimed to which she replied, “Yeah… they ate them.”

That afternoon, I sat down and read every essay. Some were funny (the ups and downs of assembling a gas grill), some were poignant (admiration for a friend who suffered the loss of a parent). One student admitted to having a blog, a place where they could anonymously share thoughts and feelings. What amazed me was that despite evidence to the contrary, each of these kids had something to say. Though they were hesitant to even raise a hand in response to my questions, they were able to let their thoughts and feelings flow from the end of the pencil.

I’m glad I participated in Career Day. Although I heard crickets for 45 minutes, the voices on those pages will stay with me forever.