Being Called A Writer

I was attending another Writing Center staff meeting this afternoon, and Patricia was making a point about the writing process, and in the middle of her point, called us "writers." And for some reason, this really gave me pause. A professor in another class called us writers, too, and that had also made me stop for a few minutes to think about this, because I don't really consider myself a writer. (I have a hard enough time calling myself a teacher, considering I'm not actually teaching. At least, though, according to the state of New York, I'm a teacher. I don't consider myself a writer just because I do some writing for my classes and help other students with their writing. I realize it's meant to be an empowering thing, but I can't make myself think of myself as a writer, by any stretch. I think one has to spend a lot more time writing, or thinking of writing, than I do - even though I think about writing a lot, but I think about writing as it relates to teaching people how to do it. And writing papers for classes doesn't quite make me a writer, either; if it did, I'd also have to consider myself a mathematician because I took a math class, or a chemist because I took a chemistry class.

I kinda like being called a writer, though.