Workshop

I was raised in an environment where elders where seen as superiors in every way. The sad thing is that I would actually believe that for most of my life because for so long I could never argue with them. Even though now I have these heated debates with my sister and am constantly disproving my parents I still have that odd feeling that elders have this superiority over me, and judging them, like we were to do in the workshop, is something that is taboo. I guess I'm in a position where I can only honestly judge people I know well. Whenever my sister preforms something I always give my opinion, probably more harshly than I should, because she is my sister and she does the same thing to me, but when I'm forced to judge something to a new person, when they are right in front of me, is something I'm not comfortable with, especially when that person had studied for years in college and I've only been writing for a couple of years.
I really didn't like what I wrote for the workshop. I actually restarted twice, already two pages in both times, before I realized that I needed to get something done for the next day. I settled on the idea of my sister coming home and a conversation we had. I normally don't like to write about myself. I find that talking about myself can get really boring and I really don't think that my life has all that much to offer. I would normally prefer to make characters that are like me and put them in situations that I would never be in. Because of this, I'm not used to writing this "creative nonfiction". I am starting to like the idea of it more as I've been learning more about it and reading the book I got, but I still hate writing about true stories.
I think I'll enjoy this workshop but I need to learn to open up more around people. I'm very shy with people I don't trust but I realize that I can go all out with people I do trust. Ever since I "came out" I've been less shy because I'm not afraid of people thinking I'm gay, but I still have this inherent shyness around new people. If Alex weren't there that day I would have participated much more than because everyone in the group is a friend and most of the group I consider my close friends. I've only just started to trust everyone in STAC and I've been here for over a year now.