Writing: A Flashlight For A Dimly Lit Road

“’But the law fooled around; kept taking him down, and locking him up in a cell. Till he said to me; “I’ll never be free; so I’ll meet a few of them in hell” [.] The road was so dimly lighted there were no highway signs to guide. But they made up their minds; if all roads were blind, they wouldn’t give up till they died.’” – Bonnie Parker

Our families, friends, and even society can put us down. Clyde Barrow, a wanted man in Texas, was constantly taken down by law, as his lover Bonnie Parker states in her poem, “At Trails End”. Bonnie, known as a ruthless killer, the lover of evil, wrote her frustration and doubts down as poems. She turned a negative into a positive, leaving her life and legacy for those the read. In the bible, Jesus said, ‘The truth will set you free’; and perhaps by Bonnie jotting down her life on paper, set her free.

This thought comes to mind, when thinking about inspiration. Bonnie Parker, through her beautiful and well-written poems, has become a person of inspiration to me. Putting aside her evil deeds, and wrongful task, she was a skilled writer and once had aspirations to dream big. Throughout her life, trials came her way and she tackled them, a full on collision. Exceeding in school, writing and planning to marry her high school sweetheart, Bonnie was overzealous.
I have been overzealous as well, writing my first novel, confident in my work, then as wall crashing down, all enthusiasm was lost because support was nowhere to be found. ‘That’s stupid’, I would hear; ‘Are you crazy or something? Do you actually think that’s going to get you anywhere?’ was asked again and again, but in the end I pursued. I could thrive and strive off of negative feedback; it made me stronger, a better writer, and entirely new person. I no longer saw myself as the creative girl who could write exceptionally well and make good grades, the girl who had been given all that someone could have ever wanted, and the girl who was riding a coattail to get somewhere. No, I was now the girl who was an outstanding writer, not one to burst their own bubble, and one that was confident in their writing capabilities, aspirations to get somewhere in life on their own, and one who worked for what they received. Before when I was the girl who could write exceptionally well, in others eyes, the road to success was ‘… so dimly lighted there were no highway signs to guide’. Many had made up their minds that I was going to make it somewhere in life, but not by my own abilities, but rather by someone else’s efforts. I would make attempts to be above the rest, and fall by a missed step. Other would feel, ‘Someone will be there to pick up the pieces and fit them back into the puzzle’. Although, little did they know, I was the one to pick up my own pieces and fit them back into the puzzle that made up my life. No support for my aspirations, only support for everything other than areas of English.
In conclusion, now, as my senior year comes to an end, and I look for a college to call home, Bonnie Parker, the person who as impacted my life as an inspiration, words come into mind. “’ The road gets dimmer and dimmer [,] sometimes you can hardly see. But it’s fight man to man and do all you can, for they know they can never be free’”. Free from what, I once asked myself, as I do now. Free from judgment. Free from ridicule. Free from those taking you down by doubting your work. Free from those who doubt your abilities to make it somewhere in life; the place you choose to nest your egg, and open your wings to fly. So, perhaps we can all look to Bonnie Parker, a gifted writer, who turned disapproval and doubts into beautiful words on paper.