Ever since I have started writing for Odyssey I have had many people approach me with questions like “so are you planning on being a writer now?” or “I thought you wanted to be a doctor?” And for a while, I wasn’t exactly sure on how to answer this question other than just that I wanted to reach other people with my experiences.

And yet one day it hit me one day as I was writing an update letter to a friend, that being able to sit down and take the time for myself and just write about anything, is my new form of therapy.

When I realized I had a problem with a depression and anxiety, my psychiatrist suggested that I try counseling with medication.

After 2 years of talking with my counselor about everything that had been going in my life, I never realized exactly how much it benefitted me until I came to college and stopped going.

I have always said “Sometimes we say the exact things that we need to hear.” And at first, that probably makes no sense.

But have you ever thought about those moments when you’re struggling with so many things and yet all of these people are coming to you with their problems and somehow you can help them with their things, but you can’t seem to help yourself with yours?

That’s exactly what the phrase means. It sums up all of those moments when you were able to come up with the right things to say to help others, that eventually you realize that your words are actually helping you.

Taking the time to just block everything out and it just becomes my computer and I typing away, has now turned into the equivalent of me going to see my counselor once a week.

Whether if I am writing about something I’ve experienced, or something that I’m passionate about, or even just something I think is funny, it is still my words and my thoughts. No one else’s.

I learned so much in counseling that I have now been able to help myself and others. And I couldn’t ask for anything more.

Writing has become my new escape and I couldn’t be happier with the outcome. And if somehow being a writer turns into what I do with my career, then so be it.