So Many Opinions

by Nancy Casey

You can’t know everything. Nobody can. Even if you take every fact that everyone on the planet knows and put them together, all sorts of things would remain unknown.

We fill in the gaps with our opinions. When you pay attention to your opinions, you understand yourself and grow. Today, write about some of your opinions—what they are and where they come from.

Set up your page so that there will be space for a title and some room for illustration. If you are of the opinion that you have nothing to write about, doodle in the illustration space until ideas start to come to you.

Some opinions have to do with taste: what you like and don’t like, what you think is beautiful or ugly. When something bores you or excites you, it’s because of opinions you hold.

Almost everything you think about the future is an opinion. Things you hope will or won’t happen. Your ideas about how future events will unfold. As the future becomes the present, those opinions could change or get stronger.

Your experience is a source of opinions, too. Whether you consider memories to be happy, sad, or confusing comes from your experience. So do a lot of ideas about whether a course of action is a good one or not.

We get our opinions from other people, too. Sometimes we adopt their opinions because we admire or respect them. Sometimes we form an opinion because of the emotions others show when they speak or act. Sometimes we observe people—friends and strangers alike—and opinions grow out of what we notice.

Take stock of your immediate surroundings. Travel backwards in memory through the events of the day so far. Consider what you have been watching, reading, listening to, and thinking about. You’ll start noticing your opinions. Write about them.

Tell what your opinion is. Explain, if you can, where the opinion comes from. Are there facts or information involved? Other people? Your experience? Your taste? They are your opinions. You can write anything you want about them.

After you have filled a page, read over your work. Make small changes if you need to. Add some color or decoration to the page if you haven’t already. When you are satisfied with what you’ve done, give the page a title. Write your initials and the date on it, too.

When you finish, you’ll have an opinion about what you wrote. The more you notice your opinions, the better and more interesting they get.

Here is an example of what someone could write.

You can share your work by posting it as a comment below. You can type it in, or take a photo of it and upload the image.

Nancy Casey has lived in Latah County for many years. You can find more of her work here. She taught the Write-For-You writing class at the Recovery Center last summer and will return again in the spring. For more information about classes and writing certificates, contact Nancy or the Latah Recovery Center.