Why does anyone do anything?
I think a lot of it has to do with personal obligation.
Work to pay bills.
Drive to see parents.
Exercise to be healthy.
Shower for cleanliness.
Breathe to stay alive.
Hanging out for a sense of community/tribe.
Shop for… actually, that’s just for a dopamine hit.
But writing? Hmmm, since it is work for me, there’s the bills aspect of it. But my personal writing? Like what you’re reading right now? I’d say a lot of it has to do with letting “something” free.
It’s like a water balloon filled to the point of bursting. There are constant inputs in my life that are filling my balloon, ideas that enter at a constant rate. If I don’t write, I physically get agitated and antsy. My balloon is being stretched to its absolute limits.
Creativity is what makes us human.
At first glance, writing isn’t a personal obligation, especially if it’s viewed as simply a job or task. Writing doesn’t save the world and I don’t need it to stay alive – it doesn’t help me breathe, move, or reproduce, and I can find other forms of income.
But upon deeper inspection, I’ve realized that writing makes me more human. It helps me truly live. I reflect on life when I write, pulling inspirations from lived experiences to capture deeper emotions.
There’s a sense of gratitude that emerges when I begin typing out words on my laptop or jot them down in my notebook. A deep gratitude that I’ve lived, felt, and experienced such wonderful things and I’m now able to translate it to words.
Writing relieves the proverbial “itch”
What you’re reading right now is a peculiar thing. I’m writing about writing – I’m expressing my gratitude of writing via my medium of choice, writing. This daily practice grounds me and reminds me that I have the privilege to see another day.
Plus, writing relieves the proverbial “itch”. We all have something that scratches our back, whether it’s writing, painting, photography, or sports. These activities give us the opportunity to be creative and find flow, a state of trusting your intuition, releasing, and being present.
At the crux of it all, that’s what it means to be creative and we’re all creative. Creativity is what makes us human.
I write to remind myself of this fact everyday.
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