Why do I write?

I don't have a ready answer for that question. I've always enjoyed writing though.

Right from when I was in school, I used to enjoy writing essays and if I may say so, was always pretty good at them, and would receive positive feedback. Coupled with my interest in sports, I then took a stab at sports journalism, being lucky enough to find someone who was willing to take a chance on an untrained and inexperienced writer for his new website, and then moved along to a more professional website with a far wider reader base. Moving on, I tried my hand at a blog about national anthems and then a blog on restaurant reviews, and ended up giving up both, the former because it was too niche a topic, and the latter because I felt I lacked the technical expertise and details required to really go beyond the surface into the whole culinary experience. Most recently, I took to writing on Medium where I wrote about my life experiences, and tried to make them as relatable as possible for others.

I'm definitely an introvert by nature, though it's got better over the years. While I'm no longer someone who used to have a near-panic attack every time I had to answer a phone call, I still greatly prefer communicating via text to speaking over the phone or face-to-face. It's just easier for me to formulate my thoughts, express myself, and gives me time to think. I often find that I'm second-guessing myself in conversations where I have to speak, which doesn't happen as much over text. This spills over to writing as well. I enjoy the luxury of time, and the relative anonymity it provides, and find it easier to control and express my emotions at the same time. I doubt I'd have been able to speak about any of the personal experiences I wrote about on Medium to anyone other than a select few people, but I felt no qualms sharing them on a public platform, where literally anyone in the world could read them. In fact, I had initially started off using only my initials on Medium, along with a picture of The Beatles, but got the confidence to change it to my full name along with the only decent picture of myself that I have.

I also yearn to be good at something. In a previous blog post, I'd written about how I've dabbled in learning sports, instruments and other pursuits over the years, but have never excelled at anything. In my career too, both academic and professional, I haven't failed, but I haven't shone either. So it feels good when people tell me they enjoy my writing. Or even better still, when they tell me that they could relate to what I said, or it helped them, or it made them laugh, cry or think about something that they hadn't thought of before. I've had people at work tell me that I've done a good job, but that doesn't give me as much satisfaction, maybe because I treat work as transactional and something that doesn't give me joy, but rather something that needs to be done to pay the bills. When someone tells me they liked my writing, it makes me happy because I was able to make a difference while doing something I enjoy, so it's a win-win situation.

I have dreamt in the past of making writing a career. My ultimate dream growing up was to be a sports journalist, something that I still can do, but which is becoming more unlikely. I thought of moving into content writing, or business writing, but that's too restrictive for me, especially since it's more of a 'this is what you need to write', which I don't enjoy at all. I'd rather write at my own pace and have the freedom to choose what I want to write about, and how I write about it. It relaxes me, and makes me a better person, and it's one habit I hope never leaves me.

I'd love to hear your perspectives on writing, or any other such hobby/passion you have, and what motivates you to do it. Thank you for reading!