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I, very often actually, have people ask me why I write so much. I write in my blog, go out of my way to write in school, write for the newspaper, I love leaving people notes, will pen the occasional letter, and have my own personal journals. Not to mention the notes app in my phone being full of all sorts of random paragraphs and musings. And when people realize this, both young and old, they often respond with an astounding “why?”.
I’ve always loved writing, so I can’t contribute it all to this moment by any means, but when my grandma died I remember going over to her house and essentially ransacking it. Just looking for anything that she had written– any of her thoughts, any of her. Unfortunately, all I could find were things like recipes, signatures, and the occasional factual recollection. I found one diary of hers from when she would have been in middle school; but all it included was a few pages of descriptions about the weather and what her horse at the time looked like. Now, not that I didn’t appreciate hearing what the weather was like on a random week in April in 1966 or what her horse looked like, but I knew that if I was to give those papers to someone else they would not really know her any better. They would have no idea about the depth of the person she was. And it was all I had, and I would never get anymore.
And I realized, I didn’t want that to be me or my family.
I don’t think there’s something much more intimate than reading someone’s direct train of thought. In our modern society, we actually write SO much. We send countless texts each day, comment and post photos and comments, and share so much of our lives. But, how much of that is really of substance? Speaking for myself, it feels like very little.
I think longer writing, and especially handwritten things, are a dying gift and it makes me sad. There’s an entire wall in my bedroom dedicated to things that people have written to me over the years. Whenever I can, I try to leave a handwritten note as opposed to a simple text. Because I know, at least personally, I appreciate it so much more. I’m an incredibly sentimental person, so having something tangible has always meant so much more to me. So much so, that I even invest in my own custom stationery with my name on it so that when I leave people notes, I never have to even sign them. Although I usually will anyway.
And I've noticed, that whenever I leave people a physical piece of writing they too tend to be both surprised and incredibly appreciative. There was one instance in which my shower was broken and I had to borrow a friends one day, to which I obviously left a thank you note. After they saw the note, they went on to tell me how kind they thought it was that I actually took the time to write something out.
Words are probably the closest to eternal we will ever get, and will at the very least outlive us by a few years. That is, assuming all my belongings don’t perish in a fire the same week that the internet crashes.
As aforementioned, I feel that writing is an art form. And as with any other art form, the only way to improve is to practice. Unfortunately, I also think this holds people back. Everything from verbage to sentence structure develops over time– and those are SUCH important skills to have. For example, in my family, I’m the go to “email scribe”. Whenever someone has to send an important email, I’m the one they call to tell me what they want to say and then I’ll transcribe it into something that sounds nice. As a society, texting and instagram has allowed us to shorten our trains of thought down to a sentence or two. And I think there is definitely a time and a place for that, but I also think it’s important to be able to hold your own and express yourself in a more long-winded way. Or even to hold a longer philosophical thought process with yourself.
And I’m not saying that everyone needs to analyze poetry and literature for fun, buy custom stationary, start a blog, or do anything crazy. But maybe, when you have a good thought write it down in your notes. Even if it is just a sentence or two. Often times it will start as that, and then it will become more. Set a goal to leave people more notes or letters. Maybe even just try to send longer text messages.
So many people think they “suck at English”, and I’m sure some people out there do. But I think a fair chunk of us just write clunky and awkward sentences because we don’t have practice. It’s like anything else. I would be amiss to expect myself to be an expert engineer without ever have tried it before.
So whether it's trying to journal more to "leave your mark", or writing a simple note to loved ones, or somewhere in between-- I highly recommend. And well people may not understand it in 2022 and you might get weird looks, language and therefore writing is one of the most direct and powerful forms of self expression in human history. You should try it sometime. No one can stop you-- but yourself. And that's the beauty of it all.
