How I Learned to Let Off Steam
As one way to control my violence as a young guy, I actually started to box. And I was training for the Golden Gloves Competition down in Lowell, the town that the movie “The Fighter” made famous – for those that don’t know Lowell or that Jack Kerouac came from there. I was very disciplined about this and that was something I was really planning to do.
One night, dressed in my sweats after a long day at construction, I had every intention of going to the gym to train, and something made me sit down with a cup of tea and a notebook and start to write.
It wasn’t a well-written scene, but I remember finishing at that moment and it’s like steam had left a valve in me and I already felt less eager to punch anything. I had found a new way to express myself, and it was with words.
In Their Own Words is recorded in Big Think’s studio.
Image courtesy of Shutterstock
