At first, I was very confused about exigence. I can look up the meaning of the word. I understand it to be this strong urgency and desire to write and convey something important to that writer. But I don’t think that’s a part of my personality. I do feel an urgency to create in the area of painting or through sculpture, especially in compositional photography. But writing? Not so much.

I liken exigence to being in the state that makes one fire-off an email to give someone a piece of your mind. I am more of the “wait until you cool off” type. Perhaps as a mature student who isn’t really a writer at heart, this feeling of urgency has waned in its intensity.

There was enough difficulty in choosing topics to write about, and I did choose topics I felt strongly about, but, not so strong that I wouldn’t have changed my mind if something more interesting came up.

Maybe I don’t really understand exigence fully if at all. But I am sure that should I ever have an urgent desire to put pen to paper and have my voice heard I will contemplate and consider whether this is exigence or just my being pissed-off in the moment.

Maybe I’m missing the whole point. Or am I?

In my argumentative essay “Genetic Modification and Sustaining Life” I wrote in the concluding paragraph that “The use of GMO science has great potential to benefit mankind.” and I felt that it was very important to express that. I had an opposing stance to the use of GMO technology on the outset of my research but I learned enough to know that I wasn’t seeing the positive aspects, that I was only listening to the nay-sayers. I felt it was very important to voice the fact that we should look for the good in this science. It is something that could help a great many people.

So… is that exigence?