The Art of Disembarrassment

A page from my notebook-
writing in Rome. 

I don't know what has changed the last couple of weeks, but lately I'm feeling a constant urge to be expressive. Do you know the kind when you just desperately need that notebook before you lose an idea? It's that overwhelming, childish and joyful kind of expressiveness. Maybe it's because of those writing exercises from Natalie Goldberg's "Wild Mind". I feel they have made my writing more spontaneous and emancipated than ever.
From the age I was 8 until I was about 16 all I wanted to do was to become a writer. I was obsessed with it and wrote tons of short stories, and even a 100 paged book. None of it was any good of course - and at one point in time reading my short stories just faded over to embarrassment. Most likely this embarrassment started in my early teens.  I gradually lost the ability to think differently from "the others", because the opinion of "the others" was all that started to matter.  My biggest fear was to not fit in and I obviously didn't. It was something "the others" made sure to remind me of time and again. Does it sound familiar? 
Now, at almost 26, I'm still learning how to embrace my every little imperfection. I'm also going back to my inner child - the expressive person I used to be before I started to grow out of it. I know that some of my old friends would probably look at this blog and think what a fool I'm making of myself.
Well, I'm about to learn you a thing or two about the art of disembarrassment.