Carly Shea

My name is Carly Shea and I am currently enrolled as a student at UMass Boston, as a psychology major. Almost all college courses require a significant amount of writing. However, a majority of the classes I have chosen to take over the previous year and a half have been philosophical and psychological courses. Those classes have allowed me to practice my love of writing, and have more creative freedom in an academic environment. I didn't feel heavily restricted to a certain way of writing, and this allowed me to succeed in these classes.
I have always used writing as a form of self-expression, and I have been able to channel that in different ways throughout the years. One way I was able to do this was through a creative writing class during my senior year of high school. before this class I felt I didn't have any outlet within my school classes to be creative, and write without many parameters. Some English classes gave me some leniency in the way that I wrote essays. However, there were also guidelines and regulations dictating what I wrote about. Also, the grading system made me feel as though there was a "right" or "wrong" way to write, or to express myself. The creative writing class that I took during my last semester shifted my perspective on the way I was allowed to write in school. I was able to write with total control, and creative direction. There was also no grades placed onto assignments for the content of our work, but rather the completion. This helped me to get back into my personal writing ventures. Which I had put on the back burner for a bit due to my mind feeling like I needed to perform in a way that was "correct," and for the approval of others, opposed to writing for myself and to communicate my own unique perspectives.