5 Reasons Why I Need to Be a Writer

It all started in Fifth Grade. My class was assigned a writing exercise to create a short story on any topic we decided was interesting. I chose science fiction as most young boys would. I loved my teacher as she was always encouraging and helpful to the students. We were required to write 2 pages double spaced and had one day to complete the project. I went home that night with crazy thoughts and a big smile across my face. This was my chance to be a writer. I wrote for hours editing and re-editing my story and turned in 26 single spaced pages about a young time traveler. My teacher was in awe and of course I was given an 'A'. I had never received an 'A' before that moment and I knew that I had found my calling. My entire life has been about learning to communicate with other people. My hopes, my dreams, my opinions, my compassion, my anger, my happiness.

Here are five reasons Why I am a Writer:

1. It feels good.

There is nothing better than being able to finish something that sounds good and you are able to claim as your own. It makes me feel good as a person to create something. My mind, heart, and soul are stimulated by this creative process.

2. Writing is powerful.

Words have more power than any bomb, weapon of mass destruction, or currency. I have the ability to create things out of nothing with words. Entire worlds, people, places exist because someone devised them in their mind and wrote about them to others.

3. It makes me feel like I have a purpose.

Am I the next Hemingway? Most likely not. But who cares. I feel more alive when I write than any other time in my life. I feel like I can contribute in some way to the world. I feel as if I am able to have a greater purpose than to work in some dead end job doing things that produce nothing of any real value. Writing creates value out of thoughts and experience.

4. I can connect with others through personal experience.

I heard something interesting on Iconoclasts when Ashley Judd (the actress) was speaking about her experience in Africa helping small children and adults that were poor and dying. She said that in all of her work the most valuable thing she has to offer is personal experience of suffering and tragedy. It is the most basic level of human emotion that connects us to one another no matter what back round or geographic place we live. Stories and personal experience are a way to connect with others around the world. Our emotional investment in communicating with other human beings is the greatest value we have.

5. I love it when people read my stuff and want to read more. It is Validation.

I love it when someone reads my story or article and tells me they enjoyed it. I love the feeling of helping someone else be entertained or give them a sense of connection or happiness, or sense of helping them with their own life. I feel like my ability is validated when people like to read what I have wrote. Everyone wants approval in some way. Having total strangers approve of your writing is the greatest feeling in the world.

Understand this value. It may be the closest to greatness any of us will ever reach. I am happy that I am a writer.