Something that I picked up fairly recently in my life is writing in a notebook, something that contains my late night venting sessions, my college to do lists, and my anxious thoughts that play on a constant loop in my head. Everyone who has a notebook or journal understands that they are in no way, shape, or form, perfect. My notebook has scribbles where I’ve misspelled words, I’ve got arrows all over the pages where I’ve tried to connect my thoughts, I have random lists in between heartfelt journal entries, and sometimes I’m writing so fast that my handwriting changes completely. It’s messy and sometimes unorganized but I find beauty in the way that I let my thoughts take over the pages. If anything, I think it shows how human I truly am.
Reading Lambeth’s piece was really eye opening in the sense that it made me realize certain things about society as a whole and even myself. When Lambeth states that, “all creatures that persist are whole”, it actually kind of took me by surprise and made me smile. It’s easy for people to feel broken and messy and incomplete for the flaws that they have or the way that they are. Realizing and coming to terms with the fact that we are human and imperfect is surprisingly really reassuring and calming. If you keep going and don’t look back, you’re on the right track. We’re all whole – no matter the disability, mental illness, trauma, or backstories that might have shaped us into who we are today. Society likes to make us feel as though we need to be searching for more and as though we should feel broken for what has happened to us, but Lambeth reassures us that not a single one of us is “incomplete”.
E367: Writing and Diversity 