Writing An Untold Story

I knew from an early age that what I should be doing would involve writing in some way or another. I loved reading as a kid, I loved the fairytales, and I remember sitting at my old computer in my basement attempting to write my own stories and poems. Obviously, all of them never really went anywhere serious. But they did end up going everywhere in my life. When I started keeping journals for example. Doodles, thoughts, poems, outlines for stories I wanted to write someday. They're all there, a little bit of my imagination and fantasies mixed in with my reality. In school, writing became a strong point for me. In college, I kept writing little tidbits on my phone here and there. And when I truly felt like I was about to explode, I started this blog. (For funsies, check out my first post!)

To me, writing is a go-to for processing emotions and life and my passions. It's undoubtedly my biggest passion (followed closely by out-of-my-price-range clothing), and I find it so sad that one of the things I love most is one of the things that is so overlooked nowadays. Why write if you can't fit it into 140 characters?

Here's why:

"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside of you." - Maya Angelou

We all have a story. Tell yours, because one day you may forget. And those doodles, those poems and stories you wrote in your journals as a kid will be what remind you of who you used to be. If you're ever lost, they might be the things that help you get back to the person you're meant to be.

"All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know." -Ernest Hemingway

Sometimes when I read back on old journals, I can't believe the things I wrote. But I've never once regret any sentence I've written because everything I wrote in my private little world was true. And when words are true they mean something, and you'll find that once you get it down on paper, you can move past the pain and hurt that you may have felt. When you write what's true, you realize what's real. If there's ever any validation in emotion, you'll find it in your writing.

"Tears are words that need to be written." -Paulo Coehlo

The two years after my grandmother died were horrible. Absolutely horrible. I happened to find a book of poems in my house one night and decided to read through them. And I came across this poem called "A Poem for Emily" by Miller Williams. I don't think it was by luck or by chance. I think I was meant to find it. I read it and I bawled. And then I wrote. The scariest things we face in life are the things that are hardest to put on paper, but once they're there, they're there. And you can feel them, and you can move past them. Sometimes the things that will always bring tears to your eyes, no matter what, are the things we need writing for most.

My Point.

As emotions, happiness and sadness can have the same intensities. In some kind of weird way, complete happiness can be just as conflicting and confusing as earth-shaking sadness. When I don't know what to do with myself because I'm feeling one way or another, I almost always come to my computer to figure it out. My biggest advice for anyone going through something (and we are all constantly going through something), is to write about it. Things don't always make sense at first and you might feel a little out of your mind, but what you write always comes around full circle. By the time all the pages of your journal are scribbled up and crossed out and written over, you'll have a story. You'll have a piece of yourself that you can go back to always. It's kind of a way of recording who you were at a given point in time, and there's something extremely special in that. So really, write for you. That's it, just you.

xoxo