My momma always said, “Do not throw away the seed if it has the opportunity to become something beautiful”. Every seed has the potential of becoming a flower, a tree, a plant, and of course something delicious. So, this is how I relate to first drafts. Yes, they might be scary, ugly, strange, and definitely jumbled with words. Yet, they resemble seeds and they eventually become beautiful over time. When I start writing my first draft, I only have a general idea on what my topic is going to be about. If it is something about cancer research for example, I have to research at least three to four hours before writing my first draft. However, if it is a narrative paper, I write down all my thoughts down on a big piece of paper before then. Furthermore, when I start to write my first draft, I start to have mixed emotions of cheerfulness and grief merged with many revisions awaiting ahead of me. I enjoy the bit of thrust and drive that I have when I start typing, but around thirty percent, I always get stuck. My brain starts to create and erase ideas the same time my fingers are busy interacting with letters on the keyboard. This fascinates me. I realized that pauses more than a minute should not be endured. If I am feeling distracted, bored, and trapped, I would stand up and start talking to myself. Yes, chatting to myself and yes I am not going crazy. So, I would start asking myself what do next and I would question ideas about the paper. This works for me and I credit my mental chatter. Now let’s be honest, staring at a screen for hours is physically and mentally exhausting. This prevents creative thought. I try to eliminate this by going out to the garden or even the park with a pen and a piece of paper. I write down more ideas, sentences, and eventually paragraphs. This also removes distractions such as Facebook and Twitter. Finally, after finishing my last word on my draft, I would feel like I had been impulsively thrown out of that imaginary world of writing and back into this world, with swiftness that would make my heart skip a beat. 

The process of the first draft and all the revisions it undergoes to become a final paper reminds me of the life cycle of a butterfly. Each stage of its life has a different goal and the cycles can take a long time. Thus, a final paper resembles this beautiful butterfly that was once this small caterpillar.