Writing, again

…and I’m writing again. As promised.

What took me so long?

I honestly don’t know.

From what I’ve known, writing was never my cup of tea. I’ve only written essays back at high school when English teachers gave essay as assignment or seatwork. And for me (from someone who hated doing assignments), it was a total agony, most specially when directed to have it not less than 300 or 400 words. To put it in a nutshell, I never enjoyed writing. I reckoned I was never born with it. It wasn’t innate from me. I saw writing as a mere academic requirement. No more, no less.

Well not until I reached my senior year at High School. That fateful year wherein I first broke my heart (okay, I’m getting mushy now!haha). But seriously, it was my first time to ever encounter such extraneous feeling. An intensified sensation I never knew it can also occur to me. It was a feeling so foreign, so strong that I made writing as the only escape I’ve got. It took me by surprise but that was when I started writing. Writing not because you have to submit it the next day, not because you were urged to win a competition, and certainly not because you were just after for praises and attention. It was writing because you wanted to tell your own story... or you just want to be heard and listen to yourself at the same time. It became writing and learning intertwined.

As I’ve written my daily experiences in a journal, I realized that my writings have grown with me too. My thoughts have widen its horizons and extended its inclusion not only to me but to the things that were happening around and to the people who were closest to me as well. I gradually grasped the idea that expression didn’t necessarily mean ME as the subject all the time. I learned telling stories (may it be in article or poem) from a friend’s experiences or from a mere stranger I met along the pavements. By doing such things, I discovered that writing was a great tool in understanding the life and world that we were settled in. Asking why? In writing, I’ve realized that it took me a lot of internalization before I can even begin with the first paragraph. And when I do internalization, that’s when I have to place my foot in one of my subject’s shoe. This part was the hardest for me and it is up to now but this part had also given me bountiful experiences I never imagined.

Writing… I never had writing on a silver platter. Moreover, it never occurred to me overnight. I never had a formal training on this maybe that’s why I usually flunk when it comes to writing’s technicalities. I do admit that my writing ability is still a work in progress. I am learning and I continually learn each day. I’d be blunt enough to say that I didn’t consider writing as one of my gifts but I have always loved the feeling it has been giving me for the past seven years of my life. That sense of fulfillment whenever I’ve done one piece of article… that joy I felt whenever I re-read those blogs I’ve made over the years… and the smile written on my face each time I visit every personal experiences that has been so well documented. And now that I'm back to writing, I couldn't be any happier.

And there lies the artistic beauty of writing…

You don’t always have to be right, you just have to be yourself.