Georgetown University

• Do you consider yourself a writer, why or why not? If so, when did you realize you were a writer? If not, what about writing interests you?
• What kind of things do you write about?
• What interests you most about writing?
• What are your expectations of this workshop/project? What are you excited, nervous, confused, and or in the dark about?
• What would you most like to learn about poetry?
• What do you hope to learn about yourself?
• What do you think you will learn about others?
• How old are you? What is your ethnicity? What “Campus” are you participating in the JustWrite Program from?

SC

• I really do not consider myself a writer because often I find it hard to express what I really think or feel through words. I find it much easier to write about facts and arguments as opposed to feelings and thoughts which is something I’d like to work on.
• If I write, I usually write about things I have to write about – school. However, I hope to write about more personal things.
• While I have never considered myself a very good writer, I am fascinated by the honesty that is conveyed in writing.
• I am very excited about this project because as I stated, I have never been very open with writing and I hope to use this project as a platform for my thoughts that I have not able to express in writing.
• I would like to learn how to convey my thoughts in a genuine manner without always having to completely spell it out.
• I hope to discover thoughts and ideas that I have not felt comfortable exploring before whether it be through speech or structured writing.
• I hope to learn how writing helps them.
• I am 20 years old, I am from South East Asia. I am participating in the Georgetown JustWrite program.

CKW

• I think I consider myself a writer. For as long as I remember, I have always been able to express myself better in writing. I tend to think a lot about what I want to say or express and often I write to organize my thoughts.
• I write lots of academic papers for my classes – I am studying English and Justice & Peace Studies. These classes require lots of writing. I also write the random thoughts in my head.
• I like that writing gives me a canvas to express what is going on inside my head.
• I hope to be able to express myself clearly and truly trust myself and my readers to devote complete honesty to these writings. I am nervous to share my writing with my own class but also excited.
• I would like to learn more about writing poetry. Though I have read a lot, I have not written much.
• I hope to learn to trust my thoughts and opinions and to trust my ability to eloquently express what I am thinking.
• I think I will learn the thoughts and writing styles of the people whose work I read or hear.
• I am 20 years old and I am white. I am participating through Georgetown.

MAF

• No, I have almost zero experience with creative writing.
• What I have experience with
• I think of writing as an interesting and useful way to express my opinions and thoughts in a very personal manner.
• I am excited to read what everyone has written and give writing a try myself, although I often struggle with it. I am nervous about people reading my work.
• How to translate the ideas floating around in my head to concrete, well-worded poems/pieces that accurately reflect what I am trying to say.
• not sure…
• I want to learn about their perspectives/viewpoints on critical life issues
• 20, white/American/Italian-American, Georgetown University

HA

• No, I don’t consider myself a writer – because whenever I think or feel something I like to discuss it with other people that I’m close to, or to ponder it within myself. I’m interested in the power of writing – I want to work in government and the law field – and to be able to change people’s minds, ones needs to have awesome writing skills for bills, petitions, case briefs, etc.
• I don’t write on occasion, but I do write petitions and letters to government officials, expressing my opinion.
• I’m interested in how it can make one feel content; my best friend writes in a diary/journal and she says it helps her.
• I’m excited to see what other people have to say about the topics, learning about others’ perspectives. I’m nervous about being personal and really expressing myself.
• I would like to learn how to get one’s point across in poetic form – I am really bad at writing short poems and being able to express myself.
• I would like to learn about what I really think about different topics.
• I think I will learn about different cultures and ideas.
• 19, white, Georgetown University

RT

• Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. I feel most days I am so caught up in the hustle and bustle of every day life that I close myself from my surroundings and other people. But whenever I stop to truly appreciate and actually observe, not just look, at the objects and events around me, that is when I am attuned to my writer-self.
• I write about pain, love, family, sounds, scenery: I try to write out what is screaming in my head, looking for an outlet, looking for relief.
• What most interests me about writing is that it pulls out the most honest and accurate account of who people actually are.
• I am interested in finding out more about myself by finding more about others who come from different backgrounds.
• I want to understand why so many of us find catharsis in poetry/creative writing.
• Who I am and can become.
• I think I will learn that it is much easier to relate with people of different backgrounds than we lead ourselves to believe. Similarly, because of our shared human nature, we are more transcendent than any perceived or actual difference.
• 22 years old, Latina, Georgetown University

KEW

• When I was young I didn’t consider myself a writer. As I grew and wrote more I realized that the quality is not what makes a writer, it is the intention, heart, and dedication.
• I write about how I feel, questions I am struggling to answer in my life and the instances of joy or pain that color my world.
• I am nervous/excited about the project. I am nervous because I don’t often share my writing, it is a window into me and sometimes a very poorly constructed one. However, I am excited to work past my trepidation and I am ever more excited to read what others write.
• I hope to continue to explore the questions of my life. I know that by reading what others have written I will get a new framework and perspective that will help me to make better sense of my life and give me a better understanding of others.
• I will learn the beautiful way that they see the world.
• 20, Caucasian, Georgetown University

NO

• I don’t consider myself a writer, because I don’t feel I have a sense of writing. Writing is, for me, the way I can express myself freely and it is often very helpful to organize what I think rationally. Through writing, I can sometimes find what I really think in my mind.
• I sometimes write diary. My diary is mostly about what I felt on the day or in the past few days. It can be a very positive feeling, or a super negative feeling.
• As I wrote in the first bullet point, writing seems to be helpful and effective to know your real self, your feelings, but it seems at the same time a very rational process.
• I am excited not only with seeing people’s writing, but also knowing myself.
• I’d like to know how I can be creative.
• I’d like to see my mind and emotional parts of myself by writing.
• I’d like to learn how people can be creative in writing.
• I’m 20 years old. I am Japanese/Asian. Georgetown University.

CCC

• Yes, I write almost every day whether it’s for a class or a poem in my diary at night and I enjoy it most of the time.
• I like writing “rant speeches”. I pick a topic that really gets me angry or frustrated, usually something political, and I write about changing it.
• The fact that it’s totally flexible.
• I am really excited to read writings from people who are in jail. I want to hear about their stories and their perspectives and hopefully learn from them and make change.
• How to engage in an open way.
• How to communicate my ideas better.
• Their stories and perspectives.
• 20. Black. Georgetown University.

RD

• I never considered myself a writer, but as I grew older I began to see that writing is a very unique space for one to express themselves. While I enjoy the expression, I do not consider myself a very good writer.
• I keep a small journal with me at all times where I write about hopes, goals, and of course tragedies that make me stronger!
• When you write your thoughts on paper, it becomes an extension of yourself, and extension that anyone can read and connect to you.
• I am excited about this workshop because I feel as if my past and the things I’ve seen are very similar to a lot of other writers and I am excited to share those thoughts.
• How to tell a story of despair and hardship in a way that is inspiring.
• How I can use my past to positively affect my future and others.
• Their unique stories of hope and triumph.
• 20, African-American, Georgetown University

SG

• I do not consider myself a writer because I have never felt fully confident about my writing – especially my creative writing.
• I only write about things that I am told to in school, job applications, etc. I have never really written on my own before.
• I admire people who are skilled at creative writing. I am interested in the different ways it flows.
• I am very interested to see others’ writing styles and to hear their thoughts and and feelings about the writing topics. I am definitely nervous to share because I feel like I can’t always express myself fully with writing.
• I would like to learn how to better express myself with poetry/creative writing.
• I hope to learn how I can better express myself through writing and if I can stretch myself and feel more confident about my writing.
• Their experiences, ways of thinking and writing styles.
• 19, white, Georgetown.

JA

• Yes, because I enjoy writing. I think through writing, and I communicate best through writing (or at least I am often more comfortable communicating through writing). I realized I was a writer…well, superficially in about 4th grade (when I wore that identity very obviously/ostentatiously), and more deeply perhaps in the past few years.
• What I am thinking, seeing, or experiencing; what I’m confused about or worried about or grateful for; what I want to remember; what I want to share with others.
• I’m not sure…maybe the way you can capture fleeting images, create almost a sense-impression, or the way sometimes your words take on a rhythm and intensity of their own.
• I’m expecting to learn about myself from what comes out in 15 minutes of writing and to be able to catch glimpses of other people’s stories through their writing.
• All of the different ways in which people express themselves when they’re not given a structure.
• I’d like to learn if I can write creatively in a way natural to myself, not second-guessing and trying to structure things the way I think others would make them sound.
• Hopefully pieces of their stories
• 20; white/Caucasian/Scandinavian; Georgetown

OB

• I’m maybe not a writer in the strict sense of the term, but I think that everyone has the potential to be a writer because everyone has unique thoughts and ideas – and some way to show them. So in my own definition you become a writer as soon as you start writing – so i guess, since I’m writing now – I must be a writer.
• I mostly write to free my head – so i write about everything that i think about: good things that happened to me – that I want to remember, bad things that happened – that I want to get rid of and just thoughts that I need to see on paper in order to get a clear image of them.
• I like the structure that it brings to my thoughts and the different ways you can put the same thoughts in very different words
• I love to show ideas and thoughts and i’m really interested in seeing what different people with different backgrounds think and feel about the same topics. I’m afraid that I can’t explain all my thoughts like I want to though since English is not my first language.
• Just letting it flow.
• I want to learn about the first things that pop up in my head when I get confronted with a particular topic and just writing those thoughts down without a lot of thinking about in advance.
• What others thoughts are on the same topics, how they are different from my thoughts.
• 22, Austrian, Georgetown University

AVK

• I’ve always considered myself a writer, ever since I could write. As a child, I loved writing stories. A particularly (in)famous story of mine was Megan’s Life, which I wrote in my first grade class. In the course of the story, Megan survived an attempted kidnapping, her father became homeless, her mother died of AIDS, and she died of cancer. It was pretty heavy stuff for a 7 year old, though it’s quite funny to look back on now (my mom kept the original copy). I suppose that was my first attempt to write about justice issues and educate people.
• Now, I write a lot, mostly for classes but also on my own. As I grew older, I stopped writing creative stories, which is unfortunate, but I discovered a love of journalism and “writing for a cause.” In my current role as the student body VP at Georgetown, I have many opportunities to write for a larger audience about issues important to students, which is awesome. I also try to write regularly in my journal.
• I love writing because good writing makes people care, whether it’s a fictional story or an article in a newspaper. I’m interested in how to write effectively for a cause.
• I’m excited to share with others and hear perspectives that I would never otherwise be exposed to.
• I’m a prose kind of girl, but I would love to explore poetry as a means of liberating my expression through writing. It kind of scares me, but I think it will be good to be pushed outside my comfort zone.
• n/a
• I hope to learn about other pepoles’ perspectives on the ‘justice’ system. Last year, I became very interested in restorative justice and prison reform, and I’m grateful to have the opportunity to hear direct perspectives.
• 21, white, Georgetown

SLC (answered questions in chunks)

• I wouldn’t consider myself a writer as much as a talker I usually like to express myself through words, by talking about experiences, joys, or problems with friends and family. However, I recently started keeping a journal on my computer, and I like the intimacy of writing. I think that it’s nice to take all of your thoughts and get them out on a page, even if they aren’t organized. I am excited to connect with others through the JustWrite project. I am nervous about being so honest with people that I don’t know very well, but I feel like trust and real connections are born this way
• I am much more of an academic writer, because in recent years my classes have been focused on this type of writing. I have creative thoughts, ideas, but I need to rediscover the poetic and creative style.
• I think I will learn how to open up to others, and that I will learn that I have a lot in common with others.
• I am 20 years old, caucasian, and from Georgetown

MM

• I consider myself a writer but I think about it as something I can call myself when I am writing actively, not as an essential part of my identity.  I don’t remember a time when I was not a writer – I was a writer for most of my childhood and high school years, writing fictional stories, and now that I am getting back to writing after years of letting this passion slip by, I am writing about issues that matter to me to educate and persuade.  I want to hone my skills and one day be able to use my writing to influence and cause change on a greater scale.  I want to use writing more to reflect on my life personally.
• I write about social issues in the US and internationally.  I want to write more fiction and write more creatively.
• I love writing’s transformative power on both the writer and the audience, as a means for truth-telling, reconciliation, and change.
• I’m expecting this project to teach me, by exposing me to the thoughts and ideas of those I might never have come into contact with otherwise.  I’m nervous that the things I have to write about and reflect on are trivial and shallow compared to the experiences of others.  I’m excited to get over this nervousness and immerse myself in the experience.
• Frankly I would like to learn to get back in touch with a creative side of myself that I’ve had to put off on the sidelines for a while since I’ve been focusing on other things.
• I hope to push myself through reflection to really explore my deeper thoughts and convictions, and challenge what I think they are through the writings of others.
• That’s a difficult thing to predict, and I’m hoping that what I learn is unpredictable and not what I would expect.  I hope to learn about common humanity, and how to communicate with people that on the surface I have nothing in common with.
• I am 21 years old and white.  I am participating from Georgetown University.

AC

• I would like to think I am. Ever since I learned what it felt like to pour a piece of your soul on a piece of paper, I have resorted to writing as a therapeutic release. Writing is just a place for me, without any interference and no pressure
• I like to make lists. Lists of places, lists of things, and things I’ve done. I write about people, and emotions, just so that I don’t forget what those times are like
• The honesty aspect is the most interesting to me. I like that the writing is so genuine, because I write to relieve myself, not to please anyone.
• I have a negative perspective of people behind bars. I don’t know anyone who has been incarcerated or anyone who has experienced a rehabilitation process. I want to know that there is some good left in a person, even after doing something terrible
• I would like to learn about the effect that poetry has on those writing it and those writing/reading it
• I hope to learn how to be understanding, how to listen, and which values I hold most dear.
• I hope to learn about different perspectives and experience that I find myself removed from.
• I am 20 years old, Mexican American female, I attend Georgetown University