Enrique Martinez

During my first semester at USC, I took Playwriting I, an upper-division theatre elective and my first-ever Narrative Studies class. On the first day, our professor asked us to share why we wrote. When she said this, I immediately wanted to drop the course. I had never really written anything beyond the five-paragraph high school essay; how was I supposed to know why I wrote when I hardly wrote? My heart sank when I heard my classmates—all experienced writers—share their reasons for writing. They were so eloquent and thoughtful. When it was my turn to share, I froze.

That night, I sent my professor a panicked email asking if I should drop the class. I was really lucky that she asked me to stay. She told me not to worry and that she would guide me every step of the way.

Heeding her advice, I kept the class. I wasn’t very good at playwriting, but I had fun. I stopped apologizing and giving warnings and qualifications about my work in advance. I realized how fun it could be to cast my work, hear others interpret it, and workshop it to see how I could improve. This was the first time I felt like a writer.

But as is often the case with writing, or perhaps with being a college student, those feelings of being an imposter never entirely go away. For me, they come in waves and are strongest at the beginning of each semester when starting a new schedule.

I think this is why I feel so grateful to have met Professor Brighde Mullins and Professor Susan Segal and to have joined the Literary Editing and Publishing program. For the past two years, I have gotten to be a part of such a wonderful community of writers. Every week, my classmates remind me that I can lean on them for support, and they always celebrate my work, even when I doubt myself.

With Professor Segal, she has been so supportive of me and my writing. She reminds me that my writing matters, and that I have more to offer than I give myself credit for. I’m so grateful to have been her student and will always remember her class when I’m trying to remember whether to use lay or lie.

With Professor Mullins, she has been such an incredible mentor to me who has allowed me to see myself from many different perspectives, as a student, writer, and potential educator. Getting to work with her over the past few years as her grader and teaching assistant has been such an honor for me, and I look to her as an example when I think about the kind of person I’d like to be.

Overall, I am so thankful for the experiences I’ve had in USC’s English department and in LEAP, and will always treasure the memories and friendships that I made here.