Working on my portfolio application to UBC has been fun for the most part. There are times, though, while going through my material such as poems and song lyrics, where I realize that what I’m writing isn’t very good. Perhaps I’m being too self-critical, and I probably am, but I have a certain expectation that everything I should write should be golden– not as in everyone will love it, but that for my own personal expectations, it should be really good. I have enough poems to submit that I think are pretty good, but for my song lyrics… a lot of them I wrote years ago. I haven’t written a song in a while, and lyric writing, as I have found, isn’t my strong suit. I’d much rather take someone else’s words (like my fantastic lyricist friend, Sam West) and give it some music. I think I’m pretty good with that. Having listened to good pop music and having paid attention to the lyrics has also made me very self-conscious when I write lyrics and what I write, to the point where I recently scrutinized myself for not writing as cleverly and as poetically as some of my idols do (ie. Sarah McLachlan, Vanessa Carlton, Rufus Wainwright, etc.). I know I shouldn’t (obviously) be comparing myself to them, but I can’t help it. I want to be as good as them, and when I’m not, I feel disappointed in myself.
Still, at least I can objectively look at this and know that I have years to improve my writing. Writing is something that people can always improve on and get better at– unlike me and Math.
aaron's random musings 