Metacognition: Kite Runner Essay

"Forget all the rules. Forget about being published. Write for yourself and celebrate writing." ~Melinda Haynes

For me, writing has been almost like breathing for as long as I can remember. Even in first, second, third grade, I would put my pencil to the paper and the words would flow out, almost effortlessly. Now, I'm definitely not saying that it's easy for me, or I'm a novelist already. But, unlike math and science, which come naturally to other people, writing is second nature to me. In fact, I'm writing this right now and my fingers haven't stopped typing since I wrote the first word. But, this is the kind of writing I like; writing in which my voice can be clearly heard; writing where I can be me. All throughout middle school, and into high school, most of the writing we had to do bored me. The teachers are unknowingly forcing you into writing in that "generic" way we discussed in class today. So when I heard about this paper, I have to admit that I was not overly excited. Not even close. I was actually dreading it.

Now, again, writing comes easily to me compared to other things. I could crack off that five paragraph paper with ease, but I didn't enjoy it; even last year, I didn't enjoy it. I was definitely expecting writing this Kite Runner essay to be the same exact way. When I started writing it, on Tuesday, which, in and of itself, is an accomplishment for me and my record of extreme procrastination, I discovered something that I didn't expect to, I wasn't having a terrible time. Like Mr. Allen said, the evidence plan was the hard part, the writing was the fun part. And I am not an overtly happy or optimistic person in any sense of the words, I tend to look on the bleak side of things, but I was almost enjoying myself. No joke.

I spent a better part of the next day trying to figure out why, besides the evidence plan, I was not burning up with hate for this paper. The only answer I really have is that I liked what I was writing about, it wasn't some stupid thesis from a book I hated about characters that I thought were uninteresting and dumb. The more and more I wrote the paper, the more I became engrossed with explaining to not just Mr. Allen, but "The World," why it is mostly Baba's fault that Amir could not find redemption. So many emotions and thoughts were swimming around my head that my fingers and the keyboard keys could not keep up with my mind.

That, is a great feeling. And, for a piece of writing like this, I've never felt that before. Ever. As a matter of fact, I feel enlightened. Absolutely everything about that process surprised me; I liked absolutely everything; nothing could have worked better. I'm absolutely not kidding. Thank you evidence plan, thank you Mr. Allen, thank you Khaled Hossieni, thank you Kite Runner, thank you Amir. Even thank you Baba...