Taking criticism from others can be tough sometimes. It can often be hard to not feel a pang on insult when your work is being critiqued. nonetheless, it is so important in the writing process. I have come to realize that accepting criticism and using it to make you work better is too valuable of a resource to not take advantage of.

Writing has always been something that I enjoyed doing and I tried to do often. I was never too upset to get a writing assignment in school because there was a part of me that enjoyed them. Though I looked forward to such assignments I didn't always get such great grades on them. The grades were always decent, but they were never quite what I wanted. Specifically, I remember one time in the sixth grade that I spent so long working on a paper about Maya Angelou. I put so much effort into, doing all my research ahead of time and then spending so much time putting this research into a comprehensive essay, I was proud to hand it in. A few days later I got the paper back and to my disappointment my teacher gave me a 75, which was a grade I had rarely seen at that point in my academic career. I didn't know what I had done wrong Even though I was bummed to find that my teacher didn't exactly care for my writing, none the less I wasn't discouraged. I still thoroughly enjoyed writing but this was when I began to put more concentration on my writing. This was when I knew I needed to begin taken criticism and use it to make my work better.

Usually I was pretty stubborn and not always open to people sharing their opinions on my work if it didn't agree with what I had done, but I knew that to improve my writing it was crucial for me to use criticism that I was given. If I was writing a paper for a class I looked forward to getting back criticism from my teachers. I would carefully read all red marking left on my papers and truly try to incorporate them into my next future assignments. I did start to notice my writing gradually getting better as I went through middle school and entered high school.

Listening to others can improve your writing drastically and it's something that I've come to even seek out. Whether it be from teachers or peers it's a vital part of the creative process. It can help in most areas of life beyond writing. Accepting criticism is an important part of life and allows for improvement.