FirstDraft: Why I Write 

 

Some claim that a picture is worth a thousand words. For a writer such as myself, I’d simply claim that a thousand words are equivalent to a thousand words—I’ve never been quite the mathematician, so my mathematical references will not get more complex than that. But back to the picture reference. I’ve chosen three photos to represent why I write: a meditation photo, an audience photo, and a photo of individuals helping others. Why these three photos, you may ask. These images accurately tell my story—the story of why I write.

I’d like to credit my second grade teacher, Mrs. Viviano, with the ignition of my love for writing. My mother would too—as she insists that she remembers every detail about my early writing experiences as a seven-year-old. She loves to remind me of the parent-teacher conferences back in 2002, where she and my teacher would discuss my gifted writing skills for such a young student. Now whether that is accurate, or simply her proud mother complex talking, I cannot quite say. What I do know, though, is since the start of that creative writing unit in Mrs. Viviano’s classroom, writing is something that has always felt so natural to me.

 

While my infatuation with writing may have started early, my writing career with an audience in mind was not triggered until years later. It all started with a Craigslist advertisement for the new startup Patch.com, and my unemployed 16-year-old self, who was desperately seeking a summer job. Although I admit to being skeptical about taking a job from a Craiglist advertisement, I was both intrigued and desperate. Little did I know at the time that the publication was actually funded by the prominent company, AOL—or that I would spend the next two years writing bi-weekly opinion columns for the site.

 

It was through Patch.com where I truly discovered the impact of my voice, and how writing could really make a difference in the world. At the time, I had been targeting controversial teen issues in high school—underage drinking, drugs, promiscuity, and the like. I used my own experiences, my own friend groups, my own observations, and just laid it out on the table—or the computer screen, rather. I tackled issues that were personally bothering me, and used writing as my meditation oasis. And for some reason unbeknown to me, others responded to that.

 

I began receiving personal emails from individuals reading my columns, sharing stories about how something I wrote had spoken to them and helped them through a rough time. Eventually, I created a separate email account for my audience to contact me through, where I experienced complete strangers open up their lives to me. Through their personal stories, they shared that my writing—from a 16-year-old stranger behind a computer screen—helped them through something they had been struggling with. And my audience only grew from there. Once I was announced as one of the most viewed columns on the site, not only was I attracting individuals my age, but parent’s who reached out to me as they printed my articles for their children, and even teachers who were contacting me for permission to use my writing in their classrooms as well.

 

I was utterly flabbergasted.  

 

I’d be lying if I claimed the reaction from an audience didn’t influence my motivation behind writing. But I don’t think that is terrible to admit, right? Having an audience respond and accept my young and vulnerable self was a soothing comfort, one that I hadn’t been conscious of searching for. The reaction from my audience is what launched me into the realization that writing was truly want I wanted to do. My portfolio of articles offered me an acceptance to Northwestern University’s Medill Journalism Summer Program, where I was accepted as one of 84 students worldwide to be educated by successful professionals in the field—learning the ins and outs of journalism during an intensive five-week workshop. And again, it was through this program that I was offered a job as a student reporter for The Chicago Tribune—which then published my works in the Huffington Post. At this point, I was writing to reach an audience in any way I could.

 

I was loving the world of writing, and it appeared to be fond of me as well. But that’s not why I wrote, it was simply an effect of it. Being able to relate and help others through my words was, and continues to be, an indescribable experience—even for an aspiring writer who always has something to say. As a junior at the University of Michigan, I am currently the editor of another newer startup publication, Uloop, where I encourage writers to broadcast their voice for others to hear. Even if they don’t think they’re making a difference, I ask them to trust me—I’ve seen it first hand. My ultimate goal is to help and empower others through words, during the good times and the bad—and I can’t imagine a better career than that.

 

I write for myself. I write for experience. I write to relate and aid others. And that is ultimately why I write.