I cook.  The funny thing is, cooking really isn’t a cathartic activity for me (which looking at the definitions, I think is a good
thing!)…I enjoy cooking, I love cooking…and I do it when I’m
stressed because I feel like I’ve accomplished something and made
someone else happy.  I don’t feel that way when I write, I haven’t
found a way to connect my writing to enjoyment and pleasure.  Maybe
it’s because i don’t know my audience? Maybe it’s because i’m not an
‘expert’ writer and this is just a part of the growing process…I’ve
only been writing ‘academically’ for about 3 years…my stumbling block
is that I feel so much pressure to be ‘deep and thorough’ and I feel
like everything that comes out is so ‘surface and shallow’…If I could
only turn in a pot of my chicken and andouille chili for my final..it’s
complex, ill-structured, thought provoking and I know it makes people
happy!