My name is Matthew Henderson. I write words. I say words. In fact, words are one of my oldest affinities. For the past 27 years (maybe longer), I’ve been using words in an abundance of venues. Like any relationship, after a significant amount of time, one learns each other’s strengths and weaknesses. I can’t say words have the ability to know much about me, but without them, nobody would.
When I was young, my father would fabricate bedtime stories for my siblings and me. I blame this recurring event for my love of stories. Stories spurred my interest in reading, which eventually evolved into my love of words. My love for reading grew so much, that one day I decided that I should write something that I would want to read. I have yet to write that article, but I’ve put in plenty of practice and I continue to hope to one day write that “something” I’d like to read.
I performed poorly, my first time trying college. I took an English class with (what at the time seemed) exorbitant amounts of writing and I performed terribly. I performed terribly in all of my classes at that time.
Outside of school, I’ve had brief but intense writing experiences. After my first bout of college, I became an affluent member of the live music scene in my local area. My love for music and knowing some of the right people landed me a volunteer job writing music reviews for a local magazine. Technically, they hired me as a photographer, but when the writers never showed up to the performances, I was asked to write my critiques. I wrote exactly three reviews for that magazine, none of which I am proud. However, seeing my words in print and distributed to the general public was a somewhat uplifting and reinforcing experience.
Upon moving to Denver, I quickly volunteered to become part of the local media. I have written several reviews of album releases, live shows, movies, fashion shows, and various other aspects of Denver’s culture. Again, these were nothing of which I was entirely proud, but I saw a glimpse of development in my writing style and composure.
Though I loved writing, I eventually realized that I disliked criticizing other’s art. I couldn’t turn it off and I soon started criticizing my own art, my own words, and suddenly, I was unable to meet my own high standards. It made me feel like a failed writer and artist because I couldn’t achieve the perfection I demanded of myself. I stopped writing reviews. I haven’t written much since, but I’ve often thought that I would like to write a movie script, a short story, or even a novel. However, I also feel I lack the consistency, structure, composure and general discipline to finish any writing of longevity to my own satisfaction.
I write several things outside of the English language. My work as an I.T. Director has allowed me to write in various programming languages. Also, my love for music has developed to the point that I am now writing music. Neither of these shares a significant amount in common with writing in English, but I like to think that they’ve both helped me understand the process of structuring small pieces to come together as part of a larger picture.
Working as an I.T. Director has also afforded me near complete computer literacy. On a scale from one to five, my computer literacy probably lands on five, if five is more computer literate than one. I’m comfortable on any operating system; I’m even comfortable on a computer with no operating system.
I am very sincerely looking forward to this class and hope to work out some outstanding “kinks” in my writing and composition skills. In addition, I find writing to be fairly therapeutic, so I think this class will be good for me on several levels.
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