I have always loved writing

I went to visit my dad where he lives on the west side of the state with his friend. He's old now, 86, and his friend was away traveling and we all felt it would be good for him to have company. My brother stayed with him for five days and I took over for the weekend.

My dad dug this up, a Valentine's Day card I made for him when I was 8 (he wrote on the back, "made by Lisa, age 8"). The card has a poem in it that I (presumably) made up. It's corny, as you would expect. While there, he asked me to type the poem up for him since it's kind of hard to see. Remember those big, fat pencils we used back then? Their marks on this red paper have not aged all that well. The letters look more silvery now, but I can sort them out if I slow down.

My penmanship was pretty good (not anymore), and my grammar and use of punctuation probably made my teacher proud. I remember how important it was to me to write perfectly back then. It's still important--maybe one of the most important things to me, actually. When I write for work, I have a specific process (plan, draft, whittle, finesse, then sit on it for a day or longer, finalize, edit, don't submit just yet, edit again, submit or repeat previous two steps multiple times before submitting). When I write for myself, I am driven mad by any oversight (a typo or wrong word usage). I am trying not to be so uptight about blog or social media posts, but I do go back and edit. When I edit for work, which is mostly what my job is, I try to make other people's writing not only perfect, I aim to make it adhere to conventions, styles, guidelines.

I love the process of all of this. I love the rules and the intricacies of grammar and style. I loved these things before I even knew what they were, back when I was forming letters on this card and in elementary school classrooms and putting words together and learning where and where not to place commas. It's comforting. 

That my dad is still around and savors a corny Valentine's Day card from an 8-year-old me is profoundly comforting as well.

That I enjoyed something so much then, and that it is my career now... well, I am not sure what this says, other than I feel extraordinarily lucky.