Writing can be a lot of things. It can be a source of outlet, it can be a representation of emotions, it can be a beautiful story and so much more. It has so many functions that for each person, it's different. Every story heard, no matter how same it is, will always be different. This is all general opinion. As for me, well, let's say it didn't start out this way.

When I was in middle school, I didn't have the urge to write on my own will. I actually never liked writing — basically a waste of time. Then, I entered high school. Let's just say things got intense. I began to have so many problems with friends, existential crisis and began to discover myself that I didn't know how to handle it. I searched up ways to vent when I couldn't talk to my friends and found keeping a journal as an idea. So, I gave it a shot. Oh, the wonders it did.

After keeping a journal for a few weeks, I noticed that the weight I carried became lighter. So, I continued writing and I started experimenting with writing different genres. It wasn't until I joined Odyssey that I became comfortable with the stories that I have written. My favorite quickly became fiction writing. I slowly started to become more open in my writings and it became a little hole I can venture into when I'm not feeling myself.

Writing has become something else for me. Over the years, as we all learn, words have a lot of power. It's why I started writing letters to people as gifts. It's a way to reach someone's heart, and they don't even realize it. Writing letters is a great and effective way to give as gifts. Not only does the reaction of my friends make me happy and feel better, but it also gives me the satisfaction that I got a reaction that I believe a normal gift can't give. Writing is going to be something else for everyone, and it's also going to be a different journey. Some might start out liking it, then lose interest, but find it again later in life. For me, the journey still continues and I won't be stopping for a while.

It has become a way to express myself in ways I could never do. As someone who has trouble talking about their feelings, I started to put them in my writings, whether it is nonfiction or fiction.

Let's take my fiction pieces as an example. They all look like regular stories with a sense of adventure or comedy, but they are also a part of me in each one of them. In each fiction story that I have written is a representation of a part of me or a part of my life. It's where I get my motivation and why they turn out the way they do.

Think of it as a song. When an artist writes a song, it represents something about them and helps people connect with each other. My fiction stories are my song. It's a way to vent and express myself in a way that I can't do by talking. The anger, frustration, sadness or happiness that I feel and can't contain will be taken out in a form of a story. But the only problem with writing with emotion for me is that it's emotionally draining. It takes so much out of you, but that's how I've always known I was doing it right.

Writing is a beautiful thing. It makes people cry, laugh, smile, angry or frown. It can be interesting or boring. It can hurt or mend. It can be poetic or straight-forward. It all just depends on the person who's reading and their interpretation, and that's the beauty of it. I'm happy to say that it's something that has worked out for me and has become a huge part of my life and who I am.