Michassie’s World: Writing Our Lives

C Jessay

The process could be protracted and frustrating. We had serious ego clashes and over subject matter and supporting examples.  In the article The Top Five Uncool Things Guys Do, I thought we needed to embellish more on guys’ crotch-grabbing habits by finding an average number of times guys do this while talking to girls. Michelle wanted guys’ wandering eyes to be the focus. With The Top Five Uncool Things Girls Do, Michelle thought girls’ stare-downs should have been the focus of the article. I fought for abusive language habits to be our centerpiece.  There were times when I would become so aggravated that I found myself grabbing the keyboard and pretending to bash Michelle on the head. I never did that… really.

It all started sitting around my kitchen table. Michelle and I were discussing the inane behaviors we were witnessing at school on a daily basis and we decided that perhaps some of these folks really didn’t know any better, and that we were going to write a column in our high school’s paper to set these folks straight.  Our column would give advice in a friendly manner, but serve our objective of changing some habits. Our first article was How to Be the Perfect Boyfriend. It was an informative and instructive essay to teach the boys the proper way of beginning a relationship, because god knows—and obviously so did we—that most of them don’t know the first thing about approaching girls. Following that article, we took it upon ourselves to teach the girls How to Be the Perfect Girlfriend.  We talked about social behaviors among our peers that proved to be an eye opener to many, especially parents and teachers.

We commented on many of the ill-advised sayings, gestures, and posturings of our fellow peers. We had to tone down the all to apparent stereotypes, because everyone would know which groups and even specifically who we were referring to. We weren’t discrete and we did not sugarcoat anything, which subjected us to interminable editing with the newspaper chiefs.

After publishing the articles, our thoughts raced to peoples’ reactions. We worried, but the student body seemed to love our articles. Some people even took our advice. Our favorite teachers applauded and congratulated us for exploring the reality of things. I’ll never forget a peer commenting on How to be the Perfect Boyfriend; he said it was “The guy’s bible on getting good girls.”  Along with peer comments, parents loved the articles. One parent told me that it gave her something to talk about with her daughter. These comments emboldened us to write more and to reach as many peers as we could.

Yet as much as we wanted to write and teach, it rarely came easily. We worked best under pressure, so we usually wrote our articles the night before deadline. There were always mass quantities of Starbucks and sweets involved in our creative process. We each had a place in my room: Michelle worked best while sitting on my bed, and I worked well laying flat on floor. We’d stay like this for hours as we brainstormed topics and examples. By the time we’d be ready to put the piece together, invariably it was midnight. We actually found the witching hour to be the best time to write as we were both delirious and giddy from the caffeine and sugar. By the time we finished it would usually be two o’clock. This was our routine once a month, and it was exhilarating.  I like to think that our energies really showed in our writing.

Those articles were the highlight of my junior year and I am really proud of my work and our combined efforts. Working as a team was challenging, but proved to be educational. Although Michelle and I disagreed on a lot, we were always able to compromise and produce great pieces of writing. I learned so much about my own writing process, by having to share it with another person. And working together forced me to look beyond my own desires and vision for the piece, and discover the worth of other aspects and evidence as a means of arriving at a message.

We were the first to share a column in the school newspaper, and it all turned out the way we had hoped. One night every month, I poured my brains and heart over my school’s environment and with Michelle developed a way to make it better. Although some may not find getting four hours of sleep and arguing with your best friend their ideal picture of fun, it was that and more for the both of us. We learned about one other, and let the rest of Staples High School know exactly what we were thinking: our articles helped others, and had therapeutic value for us. I’m glad that I was able to experience this learning with someone who such an abundant reservoir of patience.