Myth Writing, Teaching, and Other Reflections

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Hello everyone!

I just finished writing an origin myth, and I have some disjointed thoughts. First things first, I do not consider myself a creative writer. Back when I was fresh out of high school, that was what I thought my ideal career was. Absolutely no hate to anyone who wants to write creatively for a living, but I very quickly discovered that that just wasn't viable for me. I think where I'm at now, I'm much more passionate about teaching. I have no disillusionments about the state of education these days nor do I want to "save" anyone, but I find kids incredibly charming. I love watching them grow, and I like listening to their ideas and thought processes. (It doesn't hurt that I'll be paid to talk about literature all day too.)

That being said, creating this website brought out a side of myself I haven't seen in a long time. Despite knowing about lesson plans, presentations, and the like, I haven't been thinking of teaching as a creative process. I have been completing my degree semi-convinced that my life would be nothing but essays (which I don't mind, I love essays). Working on this myth and putting it in the format of a website has revealed the error in my judgement. To design engaging projects and activities for students, I have to know what their finished products would look like.

The past few weeks, I keep thinking about what I was like as a younger student. I think if thirteen or eleven year old me was assigned this project, I would've complained to the teacher, "But I don't have a story to tell," or "I don't think like this." Most of the adults thought I was just lazy, but I genuinely believed those things about myself. I wonder what he would think now.

Comments

  1. Lily, Language, and LiteracyMarch 28, 2026 at 10:27 PM

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    1. Lily, Language, and LiteracyMarch 28, 2026 at 10:28 PM

      Hi Evan! I completely agree with what you're saying about creative writing. Gosh, it is just not for me! It feels so vulnerable and the options of what to write about feel way too unlimited. Choosing character names feels so strange to choose from millions of names.

      The presentation assignment really made teaching feel more creative, but the options were not as unlimited as the individual myth writing assignment. I enjoyed that it was creative while being a little bit more restrained.

      The individual assignment also had me thinking of my younger self as well and reminded me that creative writing assignments can be difficult for children because they can create an overwhelming amount of options.

      - Lily Searcy

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  2. Gabriela ColmenaresMarch 28, 2026 at 11:07 PM

    Hello Evan! I related to your experience of not considering myself a creative writer. I was a little nervous to begin and complete this assignment because I was worried I would be unable to come up with anything “good.”

    Similar to you, I have been thinking about teaching as lesson plans and presentations because that has been the focus of my assignments and courses. Lately, in my recent courses, I have been intrigued and taking note of the different creative activities we are able to introduce to our students. This has reignited my excitement for teaching and I look forward to introducing similar activities to my students. About your last comment regarding what your past self would have told the teacher, I believe I would have had the same experience of limiting myself due to what I thought about myself. I think it is interesting to look back at that now and think about what we will do differently in order to motivate our own students to try and to believe in themselves.
    - Gabriela Colmenares

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  3. Jeffrey KingMarch 29, 2026 at 7:54 PM

    Hi Evan! As a creative writer (and someone particularly fond of arts and crafts in general), it does me good to see you embrace the more creative aspects of teaching. Your anecdote at the end makes me think of if I was assigned this project in middle school (which I kind of was, if you read my own blog post). Our opposite reactions go to show the breadth of what students may or may not connect to. Not every student is going to love every assignment, just as not every student will hate every assignment. I do also think it is very important to audit your own assignments by doing them yourself as you suggested, even if only to provide an example for the students to format their own off of. For the record, I checked out your myth, and you should give yourself a little more credit for your creative writing skills.

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