I was told once that a good way to get over some painful emotions I had hidden away, I should start writing letters.

Even if they are letters I never intend on sending or don't find the guts to, getting my feelings down on paper essentially is supposed to get them out of me. It's supposed to essentially heal me.

Being a high-schooler, I was convinced I knew myself best, and I thought this sounded like a terrible idea. I don't need to write a letter to someone I will never give them just to try and help myself. If I know how I feel in my head, seeing how I feel on paper probably won't help. If anything, won't seeing my anger or pain or anxiety or frustration on paper possibly make me more upset?

I was wrong. I was so very wrong.

There came a day where I felt so much that I didn't know what to do with it. I had so much inside me I wanted to say to someone but out of fear and the inability to put my feelings into clear words, I felt they would be stuck inside of me forever. So I sat down and wrote and wrote until the words made sense and everything I was scared to say was no longer haunting me. That was the healthiest way I had ever wrestled with something.

One night in blind desperation to cope with the biggest fight I had ever had, one that removed my best friend from my life pretty permanently, I pulled out my laptop. In the anger and crying and the fighting words thrown back and forth, any regard for the human on the other side was tossed into the wind. My feelings had gone unspoken, my side of the story left silent under the mountain of rage that drove the conversation.

So I wrote.

Everything I deserved to say that got overlooked finally got its voice. All of the emotions that I had quieted for the sake of other's comfort had a chance to be recognized. I was allowed to tell my story with no interruptions. And that's why I delivered that letter. A day removed from the heat of the moment, I finally had a chance to be heard and by putting it on paper, I was more likely to be listened to by someone afraid of confrontation.

Since then I have not stopped writing letters. It's freeing. It's life-changing. It's the best way I have ever found to release and be true with people in an age where every face-to-face interaction is met with a few minutes of debating its level of authenticity. And when someone has to put aside some of their time to read your thoughts, they are more likely to listen to them than simply nodding yes to end a conversation.

So write. Be honest. Tell your truth to the people in your life who owe it to you to listen. Tell that person that hurt you how it hurt and why you had to say goodbye instead of ghosting them. Tell that person that you love why you appreciate them so when they wake up they're able to understand you, pure and genuine. Your thoughts deserve to be heard and sometimes it's simply not the right time or place to say them.

If you write them, they will always be heard when you are ready. You will always be heard.