WARNING: THIS PIECE IS A REPRIMAND.
Dear Alleged Students of Creative Writing,
Some of you might be surprised to hear from me. I’m the blogger whose essays and poems you’ve been pilfering for the past several months.
You’ve likely garnered for yourself some kind of “passing grade”, using the efforts of those from whose lives you’ve been flat out stealing. But, the back end fee for you will come in its own time.
It’ll arrive in the form of some casual slip.
Never having actually spent any energy writing your own story, you’ll be forced as you move through life to keep some seriously sharp razors. You’ll have to take stock of everything you do and say, sorting through the lies and the truths until you can no longer make such distinctions. You’ll probably resort to escape, in that case; you’ll depend more heavily on products to dull your wits and numb your senses. And, you’ll attract those of like precious faith. The vermin. The bottom feeders.
You might acquire much in the way of material goods, and run with the wealthiest. But, you won’t have developed any real style or character, no definitive brand apart from the trendiest copies. What you think passes for sophisticated will be cheesy, kitschy, been there/done that. You’ll become heavily dependent upon those whose job it is to set the patterns for people like you, the ones who have no creative spark, no ideas, or what has always been recognized as originality.
As time passes, you’ll get frantic, noticing signs of age. You’ll spend all you’ve acquired trying to maintain the illusion of youth. You’ll be a bore, a load, an undesirable. People will pretend to like you, until your money and your luck runs out, and then you’ll do something rash in the hopes of getting caught so that you can spend the last years of your life in a closed room where the meals come three times a day and you sleep until you die.
All that.
Just because you chose to sneak your way through a college course on the back of somebody who made her own way in the world – who showed up, never quit, and made an honest wage doing respectable work, honoring her parents gifts by living them out and then writing about it. Somebody who saved money, then bought her own house, her own car, and set about living a life that didn’t prey off of others.
Yes. You’ll sail through the last weeks of finals, on the efforts of those whose lives will have left something of worth behind. I’d wish you good luck, but you don’t deserve my earnest wishes. You’ll get exactly what is coming to you: an empty shell that pretends to be a life.
Sincerely,
The Blogger.
p.s. if you are reading this site for the first time, do us all a favor; print this post, and distribute it to your English professors. Oh; and, include the blog address: littlebarefeetblog.com
Maybe enough college departments will visit this site, recognize a couple pieces, and catch the little lizards by their tiny little tales.
Thank you very much.
© Ruth Ann Scanzillo
4/15/15
littlebarefeetblog.com
littlebarefeetblog 
Please tell me how you know that your essays have been stolen. There’s this online tool for seeing if people have reposted content from your blog elsewhere, and so far mine has come up clean. I laugh when people visit my blog and say my style is “enigmatic” and “puzzling” and “quaint” because how are you going to copy something when you can’t understand what I’m saying much less justify the choices? Anyway, may those who steal other people’s writing and present them as original work live on food stamps, donations and other charitable gifts for the rest of their days. People who do not struggle to make something of their lives do not have the skills needed to survive and shall not. x SB
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Really??? What’s the link, pray tell, SB? As for reposting elsewhere, would that protect from printing out and submitting for class credit?
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I have no idea, but this one has found no copies of my work online. I have had content reposted by some blogs that subscribe to my blog by RSS or whatever the term, but I got credit for it and links back to me so it’s not a problem.
http://www.copyscape.com/
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thanks. I’ll check it. time to play arpeggiated chords until I can play them faster than I can see them. All for Schumann, because Schumann. XO
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It’s better to know for sure because people who do that won’t come back to read do not steal posts. But most colleges use plagiarism tools to check for stolen content so anyone who got away with that must have some very incompetent teachers.
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Well, then, I’ve done the right thing! 😀
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Funny! Very good. I was raised a Baptist and did 5 and a half years in seminary studying theology, philosophy, etc. as well as world religions, psychology and stuff. It was basically a double masters program (123 hours) that sought to integrate all of those fields. Attempt is the key word :). I refer to it as my cemetery days.
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”OMG”. And, therefore, did you reach any absolute conclusions? do you teach philosophy, now?
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No I am a headshrink in a rural alabama county. Crackheads, convicts and Baptists are my specialities:)
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INDEED. 😉
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I do alot of work with children and families who are involved in the system. Drug Domestic violence (redneck foreplay sometimes) been in the county for 16 years are so. Know many of them. Because it is small I see the kids and sometimes now grown people with kids at school or “walmarts”. It similar to being a pastor of sorts in that I go in the homes at times, testify in court, and even go to some school functions for some
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So, you are widely known and recognized. This must be tough, the anonymity factor blended with the social work.
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It can be challenging at times but really not much different than a pastor keeping confidences.
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So, you are ideally suited. That’s a really good thing.
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I have kind of made up my own thing over the years.
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Sounds nearly perfect. Sigh. My bro and his fam have just moved to Camp Hope in Dalonega(sp?), GA. You may have heard of this one.
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Ive been to Delogana sp? It is pretty county. They have some nice wineries around there
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Maybe we’ll cross paths some decade……:)
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That would be fun. Are you a professor
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You flatter me. And, I thank you. No; I am an early-retired public school K-12 music teacher who still plays professionally and teaches privately at “the house.” Symphony and chamber orchestra/collaborative cello and piano. Oh; and the writing thing on the side, as an amateur…..
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Cool
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(edited for clarity) (!) p.s. a “retired” school teacher does not imply an “old person”; it just means the District offered a bonus, and some of us took it!
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🙂
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HEY! What happened to Plato’s Groove?
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