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Zach Attack: The Beginning of the Attack
I met an 8-year-old boy the other day at a local Catholic school near our office. He seemed like any other immature kid his age until I got a chance to actually learn a bit about him.
How about this little nugget of information: he's got a perfect IQ. How many kids, hell, even adults do you know with a perfect IQ? My count now stands at one. He was so different than the other kids. I remember my best elementary days spent outside on the kickball field during recess—slamming the big, red ball over the outfield trees. This kid instead sat in the corner of the room reading up on a science textbook three levels above his peers.
I got a chance to talk to one of the nuns who worked at the school. As we walked past the boy, who was sitting outside of the principle's office at the time, she let me in on a story about the pint-sized genius.
He had gotten in a fight a few weeks earlier with another one of his classmates. He was punched by this bully who had been harassing him throughout the year and decided to give him a right-handed jab in retaliation. The teachers quickly split the fight up and questioned the boy as to why he chose to punch the culprit back.
“I was just living by the golden rule,” he told his teacher. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
“And how would like to justify your reasoning?”
“He punched me first, so I guessed he wanted me to hit him back. I was just doing what he wanted me to do.”
It was at that moment where it clicked. His wisdom, although a bit unconventional, made sense. Those who perform their daily actions must be held responsible. It's exactly the same with writing. Whatever style or manner you choose to write, you need to fully understand how that can come back to bite you in the future. The little boy who decided to punch the genius never wanted to be punched back, but his actions spoke differently.
This little ball of knowledge I gained from the 8-year-old will travel along with me through Zach Attack. My first attack will find its way online—through the blogosphere that so many people call home. Too many blogs are oblivious to the repercussions of their own writing. With the next column, I will be pleased to inform them
Zachary Harr, Editor-in-Chief of WNW, is a Nonfiction English Writing major at the University of Pittsburgh with a Theatre Arts minor.


