I never thought I would love to write, quite honestly in high school I hated it. I always hated to write, it was never fun. You walk into a classroom, the teacher gives you 55 minutes to write a one and half page essay on a narrow prompt that he/she picked. Something about that did not enthuse me. Perhaps it was the pressure to write, the expectation for you to produce something great off a basic prompt. Maybe it was the repression of creativity by giving the same narrow minded prompt to everyone in the class. Every essay was going to be similar, because the teacher picked what you could or could not write about. I hated writing.

I felt especially in high school that the focus was to teach a certain style and certain format. The three-point essay was drilled into my head incessantly. Everyone focused on the form, but not the idea, voice, or style. The teachers encouraged a certain way to write and way to organize thoughts. However, I often looked to various writers and they used a multitude of ways to express their ideas. I oftentimes felt the prompts on tests repressed creativity focusing on the form and arrangement rather than the thoughts or the analyzation behind the essay. It was my biggest complaint about writing. How could someone expect me to write about a specific aspect or idea about a book if my thought process and perspective are much different than my peers.

When I got to college, I found the Odyssey through a friend. The idea was simple and appealed to me -- just write. It gave me the freedom to have my own voice rather than a narrow-minded prompt. The topic did not matter, all that mattered was your voice. For the first time, it was not about writing a specific thing, but just voicing my own thoughts. It appealed to me because for the first time it felt like I had a free, unrestricted voice. Throughout high school, I did not talk much and was terrified to speak in front of crowds. I did not like to present projects and when it came to giving my salutatorian speech, I worried incessantly all week. I was not a social butterfly and envied the ones who were. I never knew quite what to say and did not interject my opinions in conversations. I felt that my opinion did not really count much. But the simple act of writing was a creative outlet that allowed me to be myself, it was a freedom I never quite got to experience.

My first college essay, I was shocked when the professor simply said, “Write about something that changed your perspective.” It was a shock to me because the topic was so broad and so encompassing that I had the power to write about almost anything I wanted. I found college to be exciting because of the encouragement to find your own voice. They encourage you to find something you are passionate about and write giving freedom to form and voice your own opinion.

My writing professor encouraged us to keep a journal of thoughts and ideas throughout the day. It was nothing fancy, except it was you and your voice. More than likely no one will ever see it, but it is yours and displays your own personality and perspective. At first, I was dubious of the idea but decided to try it if nothing else it would be an experience. The experiment quickly turned into a habit. It became a way open frustration, joy, and a myriad of other emotions and thoughts throughout the day. Sometimes just random rambles, but other times it developed into something quite significant about myself. I found not only did my voice matter regardless of where I wrote or how many people saw it, but it was a way to find out about myself. Writing about my experiences became a way to chart my own personal growth. Just like my identity, my voice would change and develop as I changed.

Writing was where I found that I had a voice and that it did matter. It was also a place I found out a lot about myself; a place of deep self contemplation. It did not have to be an earth shattering assertion, it just had to me. It just had to be a self revelation and reveal a minute part of myself. The beauty of language and writing to me is the ability to convey an idea no matter how small or big in an attempt to impart a small truth to others. The smallest idea could be a giant on paper. The smallest detail could be a revelation, but what mattered above all is your voice and that’s why I love writing.