October 21st - the date of the WriteGirl October weekend session - was a date that came up in a blink of an eye from when I first heard about it at the WriteGirl Mentor Orientation, and yet, so much had happened in the interim. I had moved, which sounds so simple but wasn't. I was now 40 minutes away from where I had been living before, which meant I was now 2 hours away from Los Angeles. This made me iffy about participating in WriteGirl, but I remembered some things I had told myself, and thus had accepted as My Truth:

1. You can't expect "someone" to take care of something, i.e. "Someone should do something about that!" That someone is you (or in this case, me). It would be easy of me to think, "Oh, WriteGirl has tons of mentors to choose from, they won't miss me." And they possibly wouldn't. But the commitment I made is not only to WriteGirl or the girls at WriteGirl. It is to myself, and to my own integrity, and the example I set to others by following through with my word.
2. If something is important, you'll make it important. I can always say, "Oh, I don't have time/it is too far away." But those excuses just reveal that you don't really want to do something. And I really want to mentor! I thought, "Is WriteGirl 'a tank of gas, 2 hours, and paid parking' important?" Only I could decide that for me, and I decided it was.

I used up that tank of gas, traveled those 2 hours, and paid for that parking, and made it to the "Eyeboogie Studios" in Echo Park/Westlake, which turned out to be a really cool place that you'd totally miss if you blinked. The entrance opened up to a cool astro-turfed courtyard with a picnic table laden with free journals. The building entrance was lined with doodled-upon chalboards, and rooms with octopus wallpaper. The kitchen featured old books and a lighting fixture crafted from a canoe and Christmas lights. My favorite part, of course, was the bathroom, which featured a "Mac Counter" with an old Apple computer resting on a bench and targeting practice wallpaper.

Eyeboogie Studios via Figure 8 Realty

We, the mentors, sat in the courtyard to receive our assignment. Girls started to arrive, and I was paired with a lovely girl who was interested in journalism and non-fiction writing. I could tell that she was concerned with the humanity of current events, and she even taught me a few things in that regard! After she completed her intake interview, we made our way through the different "stations" that had been set up.

Each station had a specific theme, i.e. Rebel Girls/Women, Campfire Stories, Blogging, Poetry, Sound Immersion/Discovery, Wreck Your Journal, etc. We spent some time at the blogging and Rebel stations, where I found that Tweeting is something I need to work on.

The Campfire Station via WriteGirl

At lunch I said goodbye to my girl, then ate lunch before receiving another assignment. This girl was a talented fiction writer who had a knack for characterization. We spent time at the Campfire, Rebel, and Wreck Your Journal stations, but also visited the Blogging station. This wasn't something she was particularly interested in, but I mentioned to her that as an author, sometimes you will have to market your own Author Brand and works, because publishers seldom do that for you.

After each half day session, girls were invited up to the microphone for "Rants and Raves," where they shared issues that were relevant to their lives, usually to hilarious results. Some girls then also shared a few pieces they wrote that day.

Reading the day's pieces via WriteGirl

My favorite station was the Campfire station, which allowed you to pick up ingredients for s'mores (chocolate, crackers, and marshmallows) which had parts of a prompt on them, and together they made a whole story idea. We then sat around a "campfire" which had paper cutouts of lit logs surrounded by flickering faux flame candles and blankets. 

At the end of the day, I helped to clean up as part of Wrap-Up and then skeedaddled on home, rounding out an 8 hour day with 4 hours of a commute. Even though it had been a whole day's worth of an event, it felt as if the time had passed too quickly.I felt energized and inspired by the events, and wished there had been more. The next WriteGirl event isn't for another month, so I will take that inspiration with me to continue my own writing, and eagerly await the next fun filled day of writing.

When was the last time you said, "Someone should do something about that?" If you were that someone, what would you do?

After saying sayonara to the disaster that was Friday night Biology-1, I decided that I wasn't going to waste my newfound freedom. An invite to train with WriteGirl had been sitting, starred, in my inbox for a few weeks, so I opened it and RSVP'd immediately.

I had first heard of WriteGirl while marching along somewhere in Downtown LA during Women's March way-back-when. I had just been plodding along with my, "We Deserve Better <3" sign when someone asked me if I was a writer. I said yes, occasionally, and they handed me a flyer and lured me to one of the white tented booths that lined one of the march's paths (the march was so huge it leaked into several streets, not just the one that was planned for the march). I was intrigued!

Women's March, right before the speeches.

I had just about given up hope that there was some kind of organization that rolled my love for writing in with my want to help others. On the east coast, where I had lived for 3 years, there had been plenty of opportunities with conferences, critique groups, workshops, etc. and so forth. I had tried to establish a Meetup Group in SoCal when I returned, but it fell through. So when I heard of WriteGirl, I definitely wanted to get involved. A coworker brought it up during a meeting, asking for volunteers, so I sent in my info.

I attended the training last Saturday, which was from 10 AM to 4 PM at the Armory Center of the Arts in my old stomping grounds, Pasadena, CA. I sat there with many other women who were interested in being involved as well, and participated in a training/presentation about what it meant to be a writing mentor. It is different than being a tutor, which is what I had pictured being a mentor was like. We're there to guide the girl's writing: to help them become a better developed version of the writer they are.

Our training session, with me in the front row (center of the photo). I met some awesome, inspirational writers, each one diverse in their experience and ready to help young girls become better writers! Photo via WriteGirl's Instagram.

WriteGirl's program targets at-risk girls in the Los Angeles area, most of whom are Latina/Hispanic and Black. We were told stories of how school counselors have told these girls that they aren't college material. Yet WriteGirl has a 100% success rate in getting their girls to college.

If I am chosen to help (which I hope I am), I will either be paired with a girl for One-on-One sessions where we meet once a week for about an hour to write, or I would participate in the monthly workshops where I may be paired with one girl or with a group of girls to do writing experiments. I am unable to participate in the In-Schools program, which goes to the schools to work with girls during the day, due to work commitments.

We were given this book featuring writing from the WriteGirl girls themselves. It was an impressive tome!

During the end of the day, we were given mini-interviews to determine our availability, and given the yearly published compilation filled with the girl's poems and freeform writing. I thumbed through the book as I waited for my interview, finding myself impressed with what I read. Some of the poems spoke to me directly, especially one that drew comparisons to sewing and societal expectations. These books are available for sale, so I strongly recommend you (my dear reader) picking up a few to show support.

I let my interviewer know the genres I am great with, but I also let her know that I do illustration and graphic design work as well, in case they need these skills for any upcoming projects. I volunteered for the Education and Communication teams, hoping to get a spot to help girls pursue their college dreams (just like I am doing now with myself!).

I was so inspired when I left that I returned home (after a trip to Whole Foods, of course, to stock up on yummy gluten free treats) to continue working on the short story I will be submitting to Brave New Girls Vol. 3.

If you would like to volunteer for WriteGirl, head over to their page!

In what ways do you use your experiences to help others? What volunteering experiences have you had while in school? How have they shaped you as a person?