In the second grade, I wrote a 21 page story, and this was not for a class assignment. This was just me at home writing this, I believe over the weekend. And then I show up to school and I’m showing it to my teacher, and she’s so graciously read the story. And I always joke about, my goodness, 21 pages of second grade handwriting probably was so hard to get through, but she read the story, gave me feedback, and said, wow, Renee, I think maybe you’re going to be a writer one day. And she was the first person who got me a notebook it just a regular spiral notebook and said, this is a journal. I want you to write your poems and your stories in here. If there’s anything you want to share with me, you can share with me, but you don’t have to. And so I started writing in journals in the second grade and wrote in journals since, and was always sharing my stories with my mom.
I remember sitting on the kitchen floor reading out of my journal to her while she was cooking dinner. And so that was a teacher who I’m so thankful that she just kind of started to plant the seed in me that this is something I could maybe do. And then through middle school, I had a teacher who saw the gift in me Too and was like, you know, wrote a really good play for, I think it was for an assignment. And so he suggested that my play would be the spring production, that we would actually cast it and that I could be like co-director and put on this show for the whole community. And that was a turning point for me too, that, oh, my writing isn’t just for me. Up until then, I was really writing for myself and my journal didn’t share it a whole lot, but middle school was when I started speaking up and sharing my voice a little bit more and directing the play was so cool, and having his leadership to do that.
And then by high school, it was a wrap. I completely identified as a writer, I often sing the praises of my high school teacher, Linda Christensen, who just was the best teacher that I’ve had. She really saw me. She was always encouraging me to push beyond my natural gift, but to actually think about craft and to make choices in my writing, not just do the easy thing. So when I was a senior in high school, she would have me do the lesson that she was teaching the freshman class, and then go to the freshman class and share and help her co-teach workshops. And so that was my first time thinking about poetry, teaching my voice, working with other folks. All of that was I think the groundwork of what became my career, which was for so many years I was writing and being a teaching artist and going into schools, working with young people and teaching them poetry.
So I am very, very grateful that I had so many teachers that saw a gift in me, fan, the flame nurtured, the seed, watered, it kept me going. And there’s still a lot of them are still in my life to this day. I’ve been able to go back and thank them and give them signed books or visit the schools that they’re still teaching at. So I feel very fortunate that I’ve had not just my family support, but that I’ve had teachers who really saw a gift and taught outside of their curriculum. So even if it wasn’t something they were planning to teach, they saw something in me and they were willing to go above and beyond as educators. And I real, I’m so grateful for that.