This is a question that I've been thinking a lot about lately. Why do I write? Out of the numerous things that I could do in a day, why do I always try to take a moment to stop and put some words on paper? It's certainly not for money or fame. I am 20,000 dollars in debt for my degree and haven't been paid a cent for my writing. And it's not because I have a strong desire to be heard. Most of my writing is in notebooks and journals scattered throughout junk drawers around my house, never seen by anyone but me. I don't write to prove my talent or make a difference. I write for the sake of it, because there are words bouncing around my head that need some sort of release. Now don't get me wrong, I would love to be paid for my work and for the whole world to read and love my poetry. I'm not denying the value of that by any means, but it isn't why. When I graduated from high school I needed to pick a major and all I knew was that I wanted to write. I chose journalism thinking, well, I want to write and I want to get paid for it. But that was not a match for me at all. Journalists need a passion for news and a need to find and share information. I never had that. Sure, I could write a good article no problem, but I didn't enjoy it and I didn't care enough to do it with the intensity that it takes to have a successful career in journalism. When I switched my degree to Creative Writing I knew I was taking a risk. I knew that the choice would not make it easy for me to find a high-paying job out of college, and I was right. But despite working at Sam's club, despite the fact that my work is still confined to journals for the time being, I don't regret it. In the first class I took I was introduced to modern poetry and I discovered that passion that I lacked in journalism. Writing an article was never fulfilling the way that writing a poem or a piece of fiction is for me. And so I finished my degree, and I wrote, and I write still.
Although writing in a journal is good for me, I recognize that I can do more. Writing in a journal is like talking to myself. It may make a difference to me, but why stick to that when I can do something bigger, better. So this blog is my first step in making my writing more public. I'd be lying if I told you I will write every day and that everything I write will be life-changing. But my goal is to write every week and to get my voice out there, if only to a few occasional readers who happen to stumble past my work. This is just my beginning, and I can only hope that it will lead somewhere wonderful.