I’ve always written, but all writers say that, don’t they?

We writers bond over the written word; we experience true and confusing intimacy with fictional characters, we analyze sentence structure, and we all know and commiserate the universal experience of a book hangover.

Some argue that writers live a troubled life- that we owe our grit and depth to the pain we’ve endured from our agonizing pasts. I can’t honestly call my past agonizing- it had its challenges and its setbacks, and I experienced my own traumas and heartbreaks, but agonizing is a stretch of a word.

And still, I write. I write everything. Stories, poems, copywriting- I do it all. I’ve written two novels- they’ve never been published, but you best believe that’s also on my bucket list.

I don’t know if writing is so much of a choice. Rather, I feel like writing has chosen me. Like I’ve been destined to create with the written word- although, admittedly, even just writing that down seemed hokey.

When I was younger, I used to journal every single day without fail. I have volumes upon volumes of Dear Diary entries chronicling my childhood and adolescent years- I captured the exciting, the mundane, the stressful, and everything in between.

Writing kept me sane in a world where being a child didn’t always feel sane. In my writing, I could create, and I could lose myself in fantasies and in romance and in everything that didn’t always happen in life the way I wanted it to.

I don’t necessarily write for purely imaginative reasons anymore. In fact, I would argue that I more write for the benefits of other people- in articles and in expressing ideas- than in exploring my own thoughts and feelings, but that doesn’t mean I don’t find the same pleasure in the process Today, it’s just a bit more refined.

I know that writing moves people because it has moved me- and it continues to move me in my journey towards growth and happiness. I know that the written word can sometimes convey what the spoken word cannot. And for that reason, I will always encourage my children to read, to write, to imagine. I will encourage them to express themselves in whatever ways they find most helpful. I will encourage them to enjoy the precious moments of getting lost in something you create.