Students anonymously shared their deepest secrets on sticky notes and spontaneously wrote letters to loved ones Monday at the National Day on Writing celebration in the Caldwell Lounge.
The annual event reminded students that writing doesn’t always have to be structured, and that it can sometimes be fun and spontaneous, said Casie Fedukovich, an assistant English professor and associate director of the first year writing program.
“It’s this idea of taking writing outside of the classroom where it can feel like a chore,” Fedukovich said. “[The National Day of Writing] helps us get back to that place where we enjoyed sitting down with crayons and making up a story.”
From noon until 3 p.m., event organizers converted the Caldwell lounge into a creative writing workshop with five different stations for students to compose and share their own work with others. Stations included knowledge drop boards, wall of apologies, a wall of graffiti, letter-writing café and a wall of secrets.
Fedukovich said that the idea for the knowledge-drop station was borrowed from SPARKCon, an annual innovation festival in downtown Raleigh. At this station, writers shared whatever advice they had to offer on a public board. They also were able to read tips about different topics posted by other students.
Hundreds of colleges and universities across the country observed the event. A projector in the Caldwell Lounge featured a stream of tweets from all over the country with the hashtag #write2connect.
“It’s everyone’s opportunity to share a bit of expertise about something,” Fedukovich said.
Students grabbed a cup of coffee and wrote letters at the letter-writing café, and N.C. State professors mailed the letters after the event.
Participants used The Wall of Secrets to anonymously post their secrets.
Kristie Ellison, a graduate student in English, said the secrets wall was her favorite part of the event.
“It gives people a chance to say something they really want to say that they might not otherwise be willing to,” Ellison said.
Maggie Zargo, a freshman in international studies, said she often reads similar secret posting boards online from all over the world.
“It’s cool to see what people have to say here in my own community,” Zargo said.
Outside of the Caldwell Lounge, students contributed to the day by drawing chalk art on the Brickyard and visiting a writing station at D.H. Hill Library.
“Watching students create artistically is always fun,” Fedukovich said. “I think sometimes we get the sense that college classes can take the creativity and imagination out of us, like we can’t just create anymore because it has to follow a pattern.”
Ellison said celebrating writing is important because people use it throughout their lives.
“[Writing] can be used to help you learn and think through your own thoughts, and it can be used across disciplines,” Ellison said. “Writing really is a part of everything.”
