Technology is addicting, I get it. As a writer, I am constantly scrolling through pictures online for inspiration and reading other people's work. More often than not, using tech can be more addicting than downing iced coffees at a Starbucks.

The problem with this is that I become so distracted by wanting to know what other people are writing that I end up comparing my work to others by the click of a button. I lost the motivation and inspiration to write my own work because I thought that my words would never be as "perfect" as theirs. I realized that I clang so much to this toxicity that my self-esteem as a writer started to dwindle like those last sparks of a putout fire.

I knew that I would have to do something to change this if I wanted to continue making content. So I decided to go old school, I shut the lid of my laptop and turned off my phone and put them on the other side of the room. I grabbed my gently used notebook and a pen and flipped to the next blank page. I thought to myself "you know for a writer, I really do not write that much with a pen and that is kind of sad." Technology has definitely taken over these classic things for me.

I started to write. It felt magnificent to not have to push the keys on a keyboard in order to transfer my thoughts onto a page. There was no temptation to open up another tab on the screen, there was no one to tell me that my thoughts were wrong. It was just my journal, a pen, and my imagination.

Just like Gayle Foreman, my favorite author, I know that these three tools are powerful enough to change the world, and that means that in moments like this I feel invincible.

I wrote until my hand cramped up from gripping the pen. It was my new addiction. I decided to write out all of my articles and thoughts in this journal before I type anything on the computer. I noticed that my attention span became more flexible with pen and paper and I became less agitated with finding words. When writing with a pen, there is no opportunity to hit the delete or space keys. My mistakes were scribbled out and new thoughts were written in the margins, and to me that was picturesque.

People who are on media will do a good job of telling you what is wrong with your work. Anyone has the freedom to say anything in the comments section, but when you go old school and pick up a journal, there is no room for people's negativity to take over. Writers have a natural tendency to let their minds wander. It is like having a television in your head that never shuts off. Memories from the past and fictitious characters flood our heads. We need to get these thoughts out or frankly we will all go insane.

In the end, they are your words and they do not all have to be accessible to the public. You can share as little or as much as you want because they belong to you. Every writer deserves to have a journal that they can reflect on and see how much they have grown throughout the years. The best way to be a writer is to simply write.