Let me start off by saying that I’m a beginner at writing. I started this blog in March of 2021 and I’ve had no prior experience writing a blog, online articles, or had any short stories published. In the day I work as a materials engineer and now in my spare time I choose to write, for fun mostly at first, but also I was curious if I could actually write something decent. Below are the reasons I started writing, in no particular order, and why I would recommend it for anyone of you who has the interest to do so.
1. As an Outlet
Every meaningful thought that runs through our head, or creative ideas, funny memories, and personal visions for our life, usually if not written down it will seep to the back of our heads and nest there until some life event re-awakens it and pushed it back to the surface again. It’s best to capture these thoughts at the peak of it, either in a personal diary or on a blog, and then have it formed in a clearer version as it gets written down. In my case, I tend to overthink a lot, where I will flip and turn and analyze my anxious thoughts and look at it under my mind’s microscope long enough until either –
A: I find a most probably resolution and clarity on the issue, or –
B: I get sick of thinking about it, and I store it away until a later time to re-over think it again.
Simply said, writing, can be therapeutic.
2. To have opinions
According to Jordan Peterson, a Canadian professor of psychology, who is quite popular on Social media (or unpopular if you are a feminist), to have an opinion is to risk offending people. When I was younger I was afraid to share my personal opinions on subjects, or was myself unsure of what I should think of the topics, due to age and immaturity, in fact I was rather timid and shy. As I got older I formed many of my own personal opinions and views based on my experiences and understanding of complex topics, and decided what mattered most in my heart and where I stood, and then eventually I become bolder in expressing my thoughts. What also comes with age is the loss of fear of people’s judgement, and I’m not saying that we should be an insensitive person ( on contrary we should care to protect the feelings of the weaker persons and be mindful of what is said to them ), but to become less apologetic for how we feel or view an issue and to express it out takes some courage and it can be a good thing. That being said, it does not mean we become ignorant or arrogant, but instead adopt a growth mindset, to listen to others views and make our own judgements finally.
3. Articulation
Writing , or writing well forces you to be form your thoughts clearly and to pen and paper it down in a manner that has a clear narrative and can be understood by the majority of readers, and myself. It is not just word vomit, that has no start of ending, but I am finding out lately as I have been writing more that it is crucial to re-read and edit the blog post before publishing it out. However due to time limit ( 3 young kids and full time job ), I find I lack the time to carefully review through my post and they tend to have many typo errors. Darn, sorry about that.
4. Documenting life seasons and personal growth
I’m able to capture the period of time in my life and what we experienced in that season, for example now my kids are young and I tend to write on the struggles and joys we face parenting them and on learning how to parent babies and toddlers. If I had blogged earlier I would have written about my years in university, or how I found my first job, the long hours I worked then (and the massive weight I gained) , or when my husband proposed to me and our first few years of marriage together. Its good to look back on what our priorities were back then versus now, and to see the personal growth in myself in the last decade.
5. Grow a skill
Writing in itself is a skill set, not only in perfecting the language but in trying to be a good story teller, or to express an opinion or insight on a topic of interest well, or harder yet to find the topics that I and others would find interesting. Since I’m a beginner I’m personally trying to grow this skill and let’s see where it takes me. I have my own goals for this blog but first, to even get there I need to start somewhere and here’s my somewhere. Same for anyone else who wants to learn how to dance or how to cook or how to play a guitar, you gotta start somewhere.
Ending note.
“How about what other’s think of you?”. That’s a valid question to anyone who share’s their personal thoughts and life events on the internet, but I have have came across a quote below in a YouTube video comment section (author unknown) and I think this helped ease off some of the fears I had of sharing my ideas and perspectives online.
Here it is.
“You’ll quit worrying about what others think about you when you realize how rarely they actually think about you.”
This is true, do you yourself spend much time thinking about what others did or didn’t do? Even if they did, their thoughts will probably not impact you in any way. So go ahead, start that blog, or write that book. As for me I will continue to write my thoughts on this platform and will do a review 1 year from my first blog post on what I’ve learned since then.
Thanks for reading and do comment if you have any particular topic you would want me to write about.