Where Am I Going By Carl Sandburg Summary

The quote, “It is necessary… for a man to go away by himself… to sit on a rock for a while… and ask, ‘Who am I, where have I been and where am I going?’” by Carl Sandburg can be related to writing easily. In answering “Who am I?” the writer can discern their purpose for writing to begin with. Am I a creative writer, an entrepreneur wanting to start a business, a poet, another type of writer? These questions can help the writer decide what style and wording to use. In answering “Where have I been?” the writer can help establish what kind of experience they can draw from to support their stance or better connect with an audience. In answering “Where am I going?” the writer can decide what their end goal is with a piece of writing, or a series of writings. The last two, “Where have I been?” and “Where am I going?” are particularly useful together to analyze a writer’s progress. How much improvement have their writings shown? Looking at the starting place: early writings and rough drafts, and the later writings: final drafts, pieces written
On a piece by piece level, this is easy for me to answer. In the Business email, my goal was to have many of my clients and their friends and family show up to my event, teach people about bees, and sell some products. In the Credit Card Letter my goal was to have charges removed and money refunded. However, taking a step back and asking, “Where am I going?” in a broader sense, in my career or in my life, has always been hard for me. Most the time, the answer has been, “I don’t know.” This is mainly due to my lack of knowledge. I have a couple anxiety disorders and they make the unknown very scary and sometimes literally panic inducing for me. Even the thought of not knowing how a reader will perceive and think about that last statement is hard. However, knowing that I have had a little practice thinking like the owner of Andy’s Apiary makes that dream not so scary, and much more