why I’m writing
Why I’m Writing
Some might ask, what is the purpose of my newsletter, blog, and other forms of content that I’ve started putting out. The most concise answer to this is that I like creating, and I’ve been feeling lately, that I have a lot to say. With this in mind, I should note that all of the most thoughtful stories and messages communicated effectively stem from writing.
A few years ago, sometime in the beginning of the COVID lockdowns, I started diving into photography and video. This new obsession was and still is due to a desire to bring feelings and ideas to life. I started earning decent money with videography on the side of my full-time language teaching job, and both photography and filmmaking have remained my favorite mediums of creative expression. However, I’ve noticed that my best thinking all starts with writing. Newsletters, blogs, and captions to social media posts are ultimately the backbone of what I create because it provides the most thorough clarity both externally (for my current and potential readers) and internally (for those times when I sit with my coffee and ask myself: “what is the meaning and point of it all?”).
I wish I could remember who wrote the article, but during my first year of college, I read that writing is THE most “active” thing we do as humans. Driving, conversing with others, playing sports, and even the most dangerous activities are all “passive.”
Experienced professionals of dangerous occupations will often say that “a person never rises to the occasion, instead, he or she falls to the lowest level of their training.” Doing a physical activity that’s very strenuous or exhilarating may force you to be present, but it is still not as “active” as writing because movements are often automatic and rely on habits and neural pathways that have already been formed through repetition (if there has not been repetition of the given activity, then it’s even less “active” because the behavior likely comes from a place of shock or panic — this is partly why many people in a terrifying situation don’t remember what happened or what they did).
Of course, some forms of writing are more mentally “active” than others, but ALL writing helps to bring to clarity.
I am writing because it helps me make better sense of my thoughts and past experiences, and I would like others who consume my writing and content in all mediums to, in some way, benefit from what I’m producing. While there will always be those who do things for superficial reasons, it is noble when people authentically share the lessons of their past experiences so that others who see similarities in their own reality have a better chance at living a more meaningful and fulfilling life. Notice, I didn’t say ‘easier.’ Nothing is easy. On the contrary, life becomes its hardest once it has been too easy for too long. Pain and suffering of some forms are inevitable, but learning from others’ experiences allows us to raise our level of awareness and be more useful to others while avoiding the fundamental pitfalls that people have warned us about.