by Delaney Francis, Peer Consultant, University Writing Center

You spend days, weeks, and sometimes months working on an essay. You start to form a bond with the paper and don’t want to let it go. It’s like meeting a stranger on vacation and knowing you will soon part ways because that is the way the waves flow. I want you to know, though, that it doesn’t have to be over yet.

Just because you turn something in for a project, an assignment, or capstone doesn’t mean it has to stop there. You can keep going. You can keep writing. You can still add more or take away. You can break it apart or structure it more. It doesn’t have to stop. You don’t have to close the book when you feel called to write 22 more chapters. You have a voice in every piece that you write: honor that. If you feel called to keep writing, just do it! You have so many possibilities and opportunities to keep going.

You don’t have to close the door once it is 11:59 on a Sunday night and you submitted your paper at 11:58. If you feel like you were rushed or confined or stuck or lost, then this is your time to go into that and continue. Maybe you draft another draft, maybe you don’t. Maybe you let your poem sit for a couple of years and then it hits you that it is missing something. You finally have an ah-ha moment and add that last sentence that makes it go from just “ehhh” to fabulous. You decide you want the world to see what you have written, not just yourself and the walls within. You may choose to share your work with the world and honor the process.

There is no right or wrong, but I am here to say that it’s not over yet. What you write is alive; YOU are alive. Keep using your voice and keep sharing your burning passion and love for what you do with the world. Your story is important, and the world wants to hear what you have to say.