Since this year started, the amount of writing as well as how often I write has been slowly increasing, but the past few weeks have been quite the amount. I have been writing a crazy amount of words a day. With starting Odyssey in January, I felt that I wrote more than before, which I enjoy. Then, writing in my journal every day came along.

Then, writing for my blog more often came into the picture. Then, the writing that I had to do for classes on top of that, especially with this quarter where I am taking two journalism classes. All of these add up to a great deal of time spent writing whether that be for myself, for my class, for a publication or for business. And although this adds up to many hours, I thoroughly enjoy and appreciate these writing hours because of how much I am helped by simply writing and getting my voice out there.

I know I write often about writing for yourself and how it's great for your mental health, but I've got to emphasize again: Writing is so helpful. Every time I write, whether that be for a news assignment in Journalism class or for my journal entry, I feel a strange, meditative calm of letting my words type out onto the screen or flow out as ink onto the paper.

All of the words and sentences that I create may not be perfect, but I love the way my thoughts become physical things that come out across a page and help communicate them to whoever my audience may be. Sometimes it does get difficult to articulate a point or get any words out of my brain, yet I still do it because writing has become a healthy commitment that helps me organize my own thoughts.

Now, writing often has made me more aware of my own writing and has helped me improve my current style to be more concise and cohesive, even for the pieces that I write for myself. The advantage of writing often is that your brain becomes faster and faster at switching from off mode to writing mode. Along with this 'switch' you develop, writing in different genres works out your brain even harder and helps you to be a versatile writer in general. And to me, being versatile in anything, in any way, is always advantageous. Essentially, I've created a positive win-win situation and relationship with writing and I am so grateful that I was able to find another outlet for myself.

Even if you dislike writing, I recommend finding a niche within writing that excites you, whether that be cars, your emotions, history, math, or news, you can write about anything. It's done miracles for me and I know it can work miracles for others as well.