I’m in love with my keyboard

Nicholas Keller

Department of English, Kent State University

ENG-11011-022: College Writing

Tom Mocarski

February 13, 2024

 Writing used to make hate everything and everyone. I used to say that I would never go

into any profession that requires me to write or do advanced math. I had various other jobs in

mind that I knew I wanted to do from a young age.

“I want to be vet when I grow up!” I said almost every day of my life from ages six to

thirteen.

“I want to be a filmmaker!” I said every day from ages fourteen to seventeen.

Then there was a disconnect. From ages seventeen and a half to eighteen, I had no idea

what I wanted to do during and after college, but I knew I wanted to go to college. I had already

toured two schools I was considering at that point, Cleveland State University and Kent State

University, which I ultimately ended up choosing. When I toured Kent, I immediately felt a

connection to it. My mom and my uncle are both Kent alums, the campus was beautiful, and I

met so many people that I knew I’d love. I truly felt at home.

Then came a part of the tour where the parents and students split up. I was wearing my

rose gold Beats by Dre, listening to “Heartless” by Kanye West, when we approached an

incredibly niche looking building. As I walked closer, I noticed the sign out front that tells you

what building it is. “School of Communication and Information” it said in big bold, white letters.

“Now what the hell is the School of Communication and Information,” I asked myself.

As we went into the building, my tour guide turned around and said, “This is college

where the majority of your classes will be held if you’re a media major of any sort.”
 As she was going into detail about what different media majors there are, she said a

funny little word that would alter the course of my life faster than you can say “Go Flashes!”

Journalism. I practically had a seizure thinking about the absurdity of that.

“Why the hell are you even considering that? You hate writing,” I told myself.

It’s true. I did. To be clear I hated the idea of being confined to writing something

specific where you’re given a set of guidelines that will bump you down a whole letter grade if

you don’t follow them. I hated the idea of being handed a book assigned by a teacher who told

you that you had to write a report or a character analysis on it. I guess you could say I hated

authority for anything involving writing. I was good at it. At least, when it was a topic, I gave a

shit about, but the times that my writing was straight garbage was when I had no care for the

topic and would procrastinate until the night before. I had done some creative writing on my

own for fun sometimes, but nothing I stuck with.

Then came Mrs. Kemper. She was my twelfth grade English teacher. On the first day of

class, she said that she wasn’t going to make us write essays about how a book is important to

society or why “The Great Gatsby” relates to the modern world. She practically let us choose our

own topics so long as it followed the criteria of a research paper, or narrative or whatever kind of

essay it was the district required her to make us do. She genuinely made me open my horizons to

writing for pleasure again. One of our first essays in her class was a research paper on anything

of our choice that we feel like we need to change. I ended up writing a paper about men’s mental

health and why there's this stigma of everyone denying that men can’t be emotional because it

was something I dealt with too. It ended up being the best damn essay I ever wrote.
 Flash forward to that funny little building on Kent State University campus where I made

the decision that would cement my newfound love for writing. I was going to major in

journalism. Luckily, I already knew that Kent’s journalism department was very good.

Now I’m here writing this personal narrative about my experience with writing in my

second semester as Journalism major. Did I mention that I’m also an opinion writer for Kent

Wired? Yeah, I’m writing where other people besides my teacher can read it. Crazy, right?

Writing used to make crazy. Nowadays, not so much. In fact, there's probably nothing

else I’d rather be doing right now. I love having the freedom to write down my thoughts,

passions, dreams, even realities on a computer where the keyboard makes a clicking sound that

tickles my ears with every letter. I’m in love with my keyboard. I love writing things and then

showing everyone like a five-year-old showing off a cool rock he found. Basically, If I could go

back in time and meet a younger me, and he asked, “Are we a veterinarian yet?” I’d probably say

something like, “Nah. We want to be a writer.”