Revise This...

I started out as an oral story teller and did not start putting pen to paper or typing the fingers in the keyboard till much later in life for example when I got to college the first time.  I always had stories in my head, jokes and poems that I could do.  I even did impressions of people but writing was not my strong suit.  So, when I got an opportunity to take a Creative Writing class in college...I was quite frankly nervous.  I knew I could tell stories quite well but write them that was a whole different thing.

The creative writing class involved writing poetry.  Something that I did not think I would ever write in my lifetime.  The professor was also a writer and not just a professor.  He was working on a book.  He was immensely into revising your work as I think all English professors are.

It came time for the first assignment.  The professor was so delighted by my writing and overly praising the excellent writing he then had the nerve to ask me "How many times did you revise this?"   "Revise,"  I said.  "This here on the paper is the first and only draft there will be.  I did not revise nor will I.  It flowed out of me like the creek to the river which in turn flows to the sea."  He turned beat red when I added, "I wrote it in five minutes.  Thanks for all the wonderful compliments about my work but I never revise.  It is what it is."  He did not believe me about the no revision thing.  Every class, I got wonderful praises for my work and then the question came..."How many times did you revise this?"  "NONE!"  Would always be my answer and I felt a lot of tension in classroom between us. With all his wonderful praises and never critiquing my work I was sure I was going to get an A in the class.  Disappointment set in when my final grade was a C.  He apparently was jealous that I never had to revise and he was making constant revisions. 

The morale of the story is trust. Trust in the talents God gave you, God made you and said you were good just like the rest of what God created.  Trust in that.  Don't revise yourself and lose who you are just adapt to things around you.  You are good.