This week I suffered one of the most classic struggles of anyone who’s written anything – writer’s block. I had no ideas and texted another creator desperately for inspiration. And still, despite our combined efforts, I found myself just looking at Google Docs and thinking, wow, I really have nothing. I really, really don’t like writer’s block. I don’t like it because I have a long note on my phone of half-baked ideas that I start and five sentences later I give up on. I don’t like it because it’s Wednesday night, my article is due, and I’m still just looking at blank paper.

I don’t like writer’s block because I’m watching my fellow creators turn out work that makes me smile or laugh or gain a new perspective. They have articles with eye-catching cover photos and funny titles, but I can’t even think of a topic sentence. I hate writer’s block because I have no idea how to come up with ideas, and no amount of Googling can produce any kind of inspired work. I hate writer’s block because it makes me scroll through Thesaurus.com hoping that even if my article is bad, I can disguise it with fancy vocabulary.

I don’t like writer’s block because I’m tired because I have a lab report because I want to plan my Halloween costume, because I want to do my homework, and because I want to message my friends on Facebook about Starbucks and how much I’m procrastinating. I don’t like writer’s block because it’s the reason that I’ve abandoned my lab report and stopped researching the paper I need to have finished soon. I really, really hate writer’s block.

I hate writer’s block because I thought about writing a “10 Ways To Beat Writer’s Block” article and realized that I don’t even have one way to do it. My usual solution is to just put a bunch of words into a document in some semblance of an article and edit it until it’s passable as something to submit.

I hate writer’s block because I’d rather look at memes, or eat Halloween candy, or sleep but I’m stuck trying to figure out what to write. I hate writer’s block because once upon a time I thought of myself as a genuinely creative person.

I hate writer’s block because I’m not thinking of articles, I’m thinking about the friends I’ve made in my classes and about how I’m starting to look forward to my junior year. I’m thinking about how I definitely picked the right school, and the right major and the right people to surround myself with. I’m thinking about how much different of a person I am than when I started as a freshman, even though my awkwardness hasn’t faded. I’m thinking about when to get coffee with my friends and about the next time I’m going to get to crawl into bed and sleep.

I’m thinking about my awesome Editor-in-Chief, who is waiting for me to submit something so she can beautify it like she always does. But the last thing I’m thinking of is ways to beat writer’s block because I just don’t have any idea. All I can say for sure is that I know I’ll be in this same position next week, cursing the dreaded phenomenon that we refer to as “writer’s block.”