About Me

“Success isn’t a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire.”

-Arnold H. Glasgow

I’m in charge. Driving down this road of life is quite an endeavour that takes quite the toll on me. I’m not the best driver, but I know that. And that’s okay.

I am forced to slam the brakes quite often – when a certain plan goes awry or a certain word escapes my mouth. Perhaps I’d spend my whole life apologizing; trying to make up for my own carelessness by constantly backtracking and throwing water on the flames – leaving ash everywhere I go. Quite ironic, isn’t it? I’m afraid of the words I can say but say them anyways – I really should know better. I take charge of my words.

I am tired of being inefficient. I don’t like wasting money or time. But I hate wasting love. Love is the only thing in this world that can be gained without losing anything – and it goes both ways. Our wells of love run dry far too often and we find ourselves scrambling for something to hold: something real that will plug the holes. First it will be pain – but eventually, love shall come roaring through and fill each aquifer – the rains will bless each soul with a kiss that will never end. Until it does. I take charge of love.

I am vulnerable – and I’m okay with that. There’s not enough time to read everything or learn everything or talk to everyone or even get a tiny grasp of what this world has to offer – and that scares me a bit more that it probably should. These facts are indisputable – and I know they are true. But I still have to try – learn for the sake of learning, and talk for the sake of talking. I take charge of my weaknesses.

But there are just not enough words to be spoken – and they are never polished enough to carry enough meaning for most people. So I write lines upon lines – hoping that someday I might be able to speak as well as I think. I take charge of my communication.

What I pride myself upon more than anything is that I take charge and stay charged. I am always firing on all cylinders with full intensity – never wasting a second to idleness. Even when I procrastinate – I do it hard. Even when I waste time – I do it fantastically – sweat dripping from my brow as I try and find an excuse to laziness.

Excuses. Every shortcoming that has ever been committed by anyone can be brushed off if we try hard enough. But I don’t want to be like that – I don’t want to pin my insecurities on my stars or numbers or something out of my control. There is always something I can do. Even if it’s just a finger that moves.

And isn’t that writing? Taking charge of our insecurities and jumping off a cliff – grabbing bits of rocks and trees as we plummet towards the final project.

I take charge of that descent into beauty.

print

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

6 thoughts on “About Me

  1. Dear Zaid,

    This piece was absolutely brilliant. Not only was your first sentence a phenomenal hook, but it also helped establish the theme of this piece. It was short and crisp, and it definitely got my attention.
    The motif of this piece is all about being in charge, and your use of repetition and the bolding of words really helped emphasize the point. Even though I’ve only met you this year, I can tell that you are a man that likes to live life on your own beliefs and values that you have stated in this piece. Your use of different sentence structures made this piece a lot more interesting as it provides more variety for the reader.
    As for improvements, it was difficult to think of one as this piece is pretty much perfect. It took me a while to think of something, but in the end, I would suggest being more careful when you’re writing. There were a couple of instances where you’ve either left out or misspelled words. An example of this would be in the fourth paragraph in the second sentence.
    Overall, I loved reading this piece, and I can’t wait to read more works from you in the future.

    Sincerely,
    Jordan

    1. Dear Jordan,

      Thank you for reading this introductory piece and leaving your feedback. It’s great to have you in my class this year and I’m glad to be able to get to know you this year and receive your expertise.
      I agree with your suggestions – I somehow overlooked that obvious error, so being more careful is something I need to work on.
      I invite you to continue to critique my work as I greatly value your input.

      SIncerely,
      Zaid

  2. Hey Zaid,
    This was an amazing post to read and experience because whilst reading it, it was almost as if I were there with you, in your head. I felt like I could literally hear your exact thoughts on the page, and I could definitely picture you saying these words in person. Your acceptance of your own issues and recognition that even though things may seem bad, you’re still taking charge, was inspiring in a sense and even the humor in your piece was nothing short of on point. One thing I would suggest for your piece would be to watch out for long sentences. For example, in the second sentence of the fourth paragraph, I felt like it was a bit stretched. That was more or less the only flaw I could find with this piece. I’m infinitely impressed with your work and I can’t wait for your future work this year to blow my mind as well.
    Kind regards, Tanzi.

    1. Dear Tanzi,

      Despite the fact that you may not have wanted to be in this class, I am excited that you are present and putting in the effort to try and improve your skills. It’s cool to be able to share creative writing with some of my friends and have their feedback on my work.
      I thank you for visiting this blog and reading the post since this takes quite a lot of time out of the life of a 12th grader with 3 cores. I agree with your criticism – I have always struggled with run-on sentences and being more concise is something to work on for me.
      I’ll make sure to check out your work whenever you post and implore you to do the same to mine. This feedback is necessary for my development as a writer.

      Warm regards,
      Zaid

  3. Dear Zaid,

    This was a fantastic piece I really enjoyed reading it, The description and illustration that you used is something that I rarely ever see. The way everything flows together really keeps the reader engaged throughout the whole piece, I really like the way you start off each paragraph with a short sentence or phrase and then a pause. That technique builds suspense and it gives the reader an idea about what this next part will be about. One thing that could be changed a little would be the amount of pauses that you use in the sixth paragraph. I do realize the importance of them but I think it gets kind of repetitive and it starts to take away from the brilliant writing. Other than that I think you have done an amazing job and I hope to read more pieces from you in the future.

    Sincerely Prabhsimar,

    1. Dear Prabhsimar,

      I’m glad that you’re in this class and putting your best foot forward despite the fact that you likely didn’t envision spending your senior year writing like this. It could’ve been easy for you to slack off – but you didn’t so I respect you a lot for that.
      Your comment was definitely necessary, as oftentimes someone can’t find errors that they made and need someone else to point it out for them. The number of pauses definitely removes some of the emphasis in that sixth paragraph, so that will be something that I’ll work on now and throughout the year.
      I’m glad you enjoyed my work and hope to see your comments on my blog again.

      SIncerely,

      Zaid

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *