tenth.

Here it is, friends, the final blog post. I won't be keeping up with this after the class, but it's been real. No, really, it has. I have honestly and truly been writing in this blog.

I think out of all of my semesters here, I've learned the most about peer editing through this one. I came here knowing that peer editing is scary, and I still believe that. I knew that people don't actively want to hate on you for writing something (with some exceptions, natch, but you're always going to find those), and I still know that. But when it comes to the actual critique part, where I sit there and listen to my story being read out loud or watch people reading it and I hate hearing the words I wrote coming from anyone's mouth, even my own, I think I've improved a bit.

Sure, I still dread having to sit there, mouth shut, listening to people say what didn't work. But then again, I've always tried to be a "first time perfect" writer. And that, readers, is incredibly stupid and one of the worst things you can do. I mean it. There is always, always, always something to fix. Even when you fixed that, there's something else.

So going into a crit session, ready to say "fuck you, I wrote it and it's fine," isn't going to help me much. Or at all. And going in there, ready to break down because I thought it was perfect, what I wrote, and hearing that it's not is the biggest blow to my ego and my judgment? Also not going to help.

It's one of those things I've known on a subconscious level for a long time, but never bothered to really think about or accept. A single piece of crit, no matter how gently-worded, would've ruined my day years ago. Now I just take it, grateful, and use it to get even better at what I love doing.

We've done a good job here, classmates.