Why I Write.

I hardly ever write by choice, I've tried keeping a journal but only filled out a couple lines every few years. I write when my teachers tell me to. When I write, I prefer to write based on prompts, because I can write most effectively when I write about something I remember or my opinions. I hate writing papers where it's my job to convey my findings of an experiment or teach people something that I learned on the internet. I usually hate writing in general, but sometimes that's not the case. When I wrote a vignette, a snapshot from my life and the events surrounding it, learning something new about the world, I loved it. I loved the writing process, I loved how the words flowed together and I was proud of my piece of art, my writing. When I wrote about another moment in my life, a moment that gave me another deeper understanding of life that I will forever remember, I loved it. Seeing the words come from me and reading them with a sense of almost awe, I realized that writing isn't all bad. In fact, sometimes it's great. I could have stopped in the vignette, left it a certain length and edited what I had already, but instead something compelled me to write more; I needed to give my story the telling that it deserved. Paint a picture on the canvas that is the minds of others using words as my paintbrush, and put them where I was when I lived that part of my life. Make them feel the emotions I felt, think the way I thought, have them relive a part of life that they had never lived in the first place, and give them the experience of it being their own. I write not for my teacher, not for myself, but for the world, for any passing wanderer of the internet to see my work and live my experience. To share something that otherwise may never have been shared. To leave humanity with a part of me.