Take a break that doesn't include stalking your ex on Facebook.
College students are master procrastinators. We will spend hours upon hours pouring through Facebook, eventually blacking in to the profile page of your best friend's friend's ex-boyfriend's little sister's random friend who was tagged in a photo wearing a cute dress. This type of mindless procrastination is what we crave after having our brains overused and overworked all day. However, you can take a productive break that will start to feel therapeutic rather than mindless!
The time you spend putting pen to paper is time that is just for you. You can create your own world completely separate from schoolwork and technology that will make you feel more present and understood than ever.
Put confusing tornado emotions into concrete words.
As a college student concerned with grades, friends, and the abyss that is the future, every single day feels like an emotional cocktail comprised of happiness, fear, anxiety, excitement, and vodka. Although, sometimes, the vodka gives college students the liquid courage to tell their friends and loved ones how they feel, writing it out is definitely a healthier, more productive way to organize emotions. It also gives you an opportunity to get to know yourself.
Articulate what you are thinking.
Do you ever end a thought with, "You know what I mean?" and receive back blank stares from your friends? Although this still happens to me a lot, ever since I have started writing, I am able to articulate what I mean in conversation more clearly and people have a better understanding of what I am trying to tell them. Moreover, if a friend hits me with that question, it is easier for me to understand them because I spend so much time working through my different emotions.
Clear the hoarder-status clutter in your mind.
Once you write down a thought, a feeling, or even an idea, you are no longer responsible for harboring it in your memory. You are free to have new thoughts and not be afraid that you will forget other ones. This is especially useful for people (like myself) who over think and get easily trapped in thinking the same miserable thoughts over and over again.
You don't need to be Kurt Vonnegut or Virginia Woolf to start writing.
Whenever I talk to my friends, who don't already write, about the power of the pen, they usually respond with a lazy "yeah, but I suck at writing." To all of you out there who believe they suck, I tell you this: Who cares?! Don't get caught up in the way you are writing something -- just write it! No one ever really has to read what you write unless you want them to. Who knows? Maybe you will come up with the next great novel or screenplay! Don't be so hard on yourself; everyone starts somewhere.
Finally, there are many fun accessories.
So, accept the following challenge!
Write every night for a week, even if it is just for ten minutes. If you cannot think of anything to put down on the page, try writing two things from your day that you are happy about, and two things that you want to make better. It's never too late to start.
