Lola’s POV: The Balance of Staying True to My Voice

Oh my God! School is driving me insane! Lately I find myself having to choose between getting my full eight hours, having a social life (on hiatus right now, thanks to Hurricane María!) or acing my classes. I have a slight feeling that it shouldn’t be that way. I’m currently in my junior year in high school and I’ve been told that this is one of the toughest years in my high school career (please stress me out more)! So already having those thoughts in mind, I begin to get more anxious. All of my courses this year are very challenging and the teachers have no mercy.  

On top of that, I am “working woman.” Other than having my weekly POV on HipLatina, I am also a full-time advocate for congenital heart defect (CHD) awareness and a writer of all things poetry (and love stuff blah, blah, blush, blush).  So I definitely have some times where it’s very hard to juggle my school life, work life, social life, and sometimes –(Monday through Thursday, 3:00pm-5:00pm EST) – I try to remind my body of how far it’s come and fit in my gym fanatic lifestyle. With so much on my plate, I bet you’re asking yourself “Lola, how do you find topics to write about every week for your P.O.V? Don’t you ever run out of topics?”  Well ladies and gentlemen, let me take you on a journey called Inside the Writer’s Mind (cue whimsical music!)

Actually, my challenge has never been finding what to write about. If you’ve been following my POV every Sunday, you might have noticed I am a very outspoken, and opinionated person, and I have no problem discussing any topic.  What has become more of an issue has been having to alter my writer’s voice because of school and the way that I have to write for my assignments. I’ve been writing for a while now, and I thought I had developed my own writing style already, that I had found my voice. Surprise! Here comes school to crush my dreams of writing essays, blogs, and stories where I’m the speaker! Lately, I’m writing analytical essays, rhetorical analysis papers, lab reports and answering reading comprehension questions, which sadly have made me detach myself from my writing, making it harder to switch to my writer’s voice when it’s time to write something personal. My AP language and writing course (which I love…and whose teacher just so happens to read my POV’s) has forced me to change my voice when it comes to different types of essays. I didn’t know it was going to be such a challenging course nor that it would be such a struggle to shut down the free-spirited writer in me. Of course I would love to always write in blog format and speak in sitcom but that’s just the way the cookie crumbles. I’m a student at the mercy of academics and I have to follow class rules and regulations.  

Of course, as with everything in life, you take the good with the blah. I’ve learned how to write in different styles, for different occasions, and for different audiences, which broadens my knowledge on writing and my group of readers.  On the other hand, I’ve had to switch writing styles for every assignment I have,  and it has become very hard to later sit down and write about something in my point of view. For research papers or rhetorical analysis I’ve been taught that third person is key to getting your point through in a non-biased way (and a decent grade). But here’s the thing… I WRITE IN A BIASED WAY BECAUSE I SPEAK AND WRITE IN “LOLA’S POV” STYLE 24/7. I get so confused man!  

Bottom line is, you’re going to have to do things in your life that are tough, that you don’t 100% agree with, and that you are not very good at (and this applies to much more than writing). You just have to find the positive; you get to learn new things and you acquire a different set of skills. And it is during these times that you have to think, “should I be like Lola and get frustrated over every assignment?  Or should I  experiment and try out new styles even though I’m being censored and aggravated to get a good grade?” In either case, you can choose to be like Lola anyway because y’all know I do anything for a high score.