Transcript Lesson 2 Essentials Video: Writer

ERRIENE: I do consider myself a writer. I consider myself to be a writer because I think that it's more of a way of being in the world than anything else. It's who you are and how you relate to things beyond the classroom.

MAYA: I think my greatest strength as a college writer would be that I feel very strongly connected to the things that I want to write about. It's very emotional and personal for me to write about these things. And it really makes sense of the thoughts in my head, you know? It makes me understand who I am and make sense of the world.

AIME'E: I think of myself as a writer because in order for me to remember or be able to look back on most of the things that I've done, I would have need to have documented it. And I'd like to know what is going on in my life. I like to know what's going on around the world in my country and other countries, what's going on to other people. Because I really do want to save the world. I just don't know how I'm going to do it yet.

CRISOSTO: Because I grew up with a lot of discrimination and a lot of those types of disparities, and I think that defined me as how I would fit into this whole academic setting, which I think really a lot of people don't talk about. It's taken me this long to try to get my BA, you know? And it's definitely been a long journey. But within that, I mean, because of the stigma that a lot of Native Americans grew up with, the stereotypes and how people view them, I think that is internalized, which it certainly happened with me, about how academic work should look like and how it should be accomplished.

NIA: I think a writer to me, honestly, is anyone who picks up a pen or has a math book or just jots down some words. I feel like there are good and bad writers, depending on I guess who is judging you, who is critiquing you. But I feel like everyone can write. Writing is, as I learned, it's within you. I felt like before, you had to have published a book or you had to have won awards for someone to call you a writer, just like for a long time, I was uncomfortable calling myself an artist because I guess I never was credited or awarded or something like that. But I feel like if you say you're a writer, then you're a writer. And I'm a writer.