Guess what? Want to know what you can do to be a writer? You can write things. That's it. That's all it takes. Oh, maybe you want to know what it takes to become a professional writer.

Well, I can't help you. I am not a professional writer, I am essentially a volunteer writing for The Odyssey. But, in theory I can call myself a writer, because I write things. Much like in the same way that someone picks up a guitar and starts playing it, they can call themselves a guitarist, or someone who tries to make art can call themselves an artist.

This is the beauty about the English language. The amount of specificity that one person can choose to have with a word is different than how another person might see it. For example, we can all agree that Eddie Van Halen is a guitarist; however, many people would not say that someone playing their first ever chord on a guitar is a guitarist, at least not yet.

This is the real crux of my dilemma because, there are hundreds of thousands of professional writers out there who can write much better than me, musicians who can play much better than I can, and artists who can art much better than I will ever be able to. However, in our life, the only labels that matter are the ones that we give to ourselves. Sure, other people might say "Oh, you're not an actual writer." But if you consider yourself a writer, then you are a writer! Plain as day.

If you have a hobby, hopefully it's something that you enjoy doing. Some of my hobbies include woodburning, wood carving, metalworking/blacksmithing, and a few other things. Enjoying them has lead me to learn more about doing them, and the learning process plus the actual doing of the hobby have helped me to become better than I was. So, if you want to get better at a hobby, learn as much as you can, and practice. It's the only way you can get to Carnegie Hall.