My First Writing Prompt. Ever!

I was looking through my closet when I happened to come across a tattered and torn notebook. It was one of those composition books many of us wrote in during our time in elementary school as we learned letters and constructed sentences, and stories.

I smiled warmly, full of nostalgia, as I picked up the notebook and leafed through it.

“Yes,” I smiled to myself as I read through the messy yet still eligible child’s handwriting.

That handwriting was from eight year old me. Some of my handwriting was easily legible while other pages of my notebook were near atrocious to decipher as I had no consideration of adding spaces to my words!

For fun and to bring about a temporary much needed trip back to my childhood, I took the time to read (sometimes as best as I could) what I wrote in my journal. It was like seeing the world through the eyes of my younger self.

I continued to leaf through it when I came upon this gem!

What is probably my very first writing prompt. Ever!

“Tell a story telling what would happen if we didn’t have any teeth?”

I’m sure my creative wheels were spinning when us students got this writing prompt from our teacher. I’m sure I put a lot of hypothetical thought into it.

What would life be like if we didn’t have any teeth? What inconveniences would that bring?

The teacher having us do writing prompts and keeping a journal was an excellent idea, because quite honestly, I vaguely remember writing this or most of the other writings in this little composition book!

However, I do remember sitting down in class and writing itself!

During a certain time of day, the teacher would ask us to pull out our journals and write down our thoughts. Sometimes, we would be given a writing prompt while other times we were to just write whatever we wanted. It was about maybe fifteen dedicated minutes (maybe a little more) of our time to be quiet, reflect, and write.

As I’m reading through my journal penned by the handwriting of eight year old me who was just finding her writing voice, I know it might not be as easily readable for some!

With that in mind, here is a transcription of my response all those years ago without edit!

“If you had no teeth at all you won’t be able to eat your food. Or you can’t drink from a cup. Or do anything with your teeth or mouth, or you won’t be able to chow (chew?) food.”

Apparently the first thing I thought of would be our inability to eat certain foods! In fact, for the entirety of my very short response, it was all that I mentioned. Hey, I did have a good point! The inability to eat certain foods would be a concern for many and I’m quite sure it would be one of the first things many would think about regarding this writing prompt.

If I would do a retake on this writing prompt, I would most certainly mention other inconveniences like the inability or difficulty of enunciating certain words. Or I would elaborate on just what foods would be rather difficult or impossible to eat. Like potato chips for instance!

And take notice I only mentioned the downsides of having no teeth. Today, I would try to find at least one good thing out of it. Having no teeth means not having to worry about certain oral health concerns, although we’d still have to worry about our gums!

Just goes to show how much I evolved and grown as a writer, I guess! Maybe this was one of the many happenings in my life that would inspire me to be a writer.

I don’t remember us sharing our writing prompts with the rest of the class. I believe it was for our eyes only and the teacher’s as well as she graded us on composition, creativity and our over all writing skills.

I can only ponder what takes my fellow classmates had on this writing prompt.

The journal us students kept was a glimpse into what sort of writer I and I’m sure many others would one day become.