Aimee Response

Aimee
I love the content of the NPR piece. I always find it interesting when people hold writing workshops for veterans. To hear about such a great turn out at Fort Bragg is really inspiring. Mr. Bob Joust, a war veteran, mentioned how it took him over twenty years to finally seek out help to heal the pain that he had suppressed for so long. Mr. Joe, another veteran, confirmed that writing was an important part of his healing process. The writing process helped Mr. Joe by allowing him to open up to others and inspire other veterans to share their experiences as well. The acts of writing, sharing and healing is really interesting when I think about it in the war veteran context compared to academic context. the article "Writing Memoir and Writing for Therapy" hits some really controversial points. Tara DaPra wrote this article with the intention of highlighting the benefits of integrating psychological wellness in the writing classroom. DaPra's article brought up some points regarding the nature of classroom etiquette and the writing process. There's no doubt that writing about experiences (traumatic or not) can help a person gain a different perspective and understanding. However, the article also asks at what point does this new perspective become crafted to mean something greater than just the experience? How can a writer develop their emotions and initial perspective into something that can be widely understood but also artistic? Looking at memoirs as a mode of writing to reconstruct experiences, DaPra asks her readers to think about whether writing about experience is a creative act or if the experience creates the writer.