This past week, I was asked a question I had never really been asked before. I was asked why I write. Granted, this is a completely valid question considering my career choice is to be a writer. If I'm being totally honest though, before I had been asked this I had never given it a second thought. I write because I always have. Writing to me is as natural as breathing. Upon further reflection, I found that there is a bit of a backstory to why I write. It begins with my love for reading.
Growing up, I spent the majority of my time reading. I remember checking out the maximum amount of books you could check out at once from the school library. I'd do this multiple times a week, and as soon as I put down a book I finished reading I would pick up another. I'd find myself lost in the magical world of "Harry Potter," and I was even jokingly called Hermione a few times because of my obsession with books and learning.
Naturally, this comparison was welcomed. I felt like for the first time, I found someone who really understood me. When I felt lonely or misguided, I knew I could open up one of the books and feel at home with her. I remember thinking I'd never feel that way about another character, and I remember when that proved to be untrue. I read "The Outsiders" by S.E. Hinton in the seventh grade, and Ponyboy Curtis revolutionized my life just as Hermione Granger once did. A sensitive introvert and book lover who felt like an outsider? I once again felt understood.
I can't pinpoint an exact moment when I began to write, but I know that I wrote feverishly. Some part of me has always known that I wanted to be a writer. So as a child, I would journal my days and write short stories based off of whatever inspired me in the moment. I remember sitting at the family desktop computer and typing away for hours until whatever I was writing came close to my perfectionist expectations, and then scrapping whatever I wrote the next day because it wasn't good enough. I held myself to these impossible standards that I wouldn't hold anyone else to, and I still do.
In high school, writing became routine to me. It was all about research papers and five-paragraph essays, and whatever creative liberties I had were usually squashed. I had mastered what teachers considered to be the "perfect" essay. My English teacher my junior year flat out told me there was nothing more she could teach me. I had surpassed her. I lost interest in something that had always been this monumental part of my life. Writing had become boring. It was officially my worst nightmare.
I spent a lot of time trying to convince myself that I should do something else with my time and my life. In high school I discovered a love for theatre, so I had assumed that that's what I should do professionally. It took me one whole day of college to figure out that writing was my first and most important love in my life, and once again I was back on track to what I know is my purpose. Writing once again became a pivotal part of my life. I knew now that no matter how much I tried to live without it, it would always push its way back.
Writing is all about connecting. With yourself, and those who read your work. I had discovered this at an early age, and it's that connection that's pushed me in life to where I am right now, writing this article. So many writers have influenced me and inspired me to create, such as J.K. Rowling, S.E. Hinton, Harper Lee, Charles Dickens and so many more. I can only hope to create a connection with my readers, however few they may be, that will have as lasting an impression on them as I know I've felt with others. This is why I write.
