By Danielle Shealy

A piece of paper can take us anywhere, but it’s deciding where we want to go that’s the hardest part.

Writing is the best addiction to ever have because it’s like our own personal psychologist. We can write down how we feel and then if need be, we can throw it away after.  Writing lets us be who we are without any judgement.  It also lets us feel how we want to feel without any opposing views on certain issues.  A pencil can turn into our own private airline and take us anywhere in the world we want to go. Although my writing is messy and my process is also unconventional, I write my best pieces this way.

I would describe my writing as word: puke.  When I puke my words out on paper, I tend to over-compensate by adding more words than I need to get my point across.  Also, I tend to use a single word, multiple times, throughout the paper.  These tendencies are fixable but if I didn’t have these mistakes in my writing, then it truly wouldn’t be my voice speaking through the page.

I have always wanted to go to New York City, but never had the money or time, so I made up my own New York.  In the New York I imagined, it’s not quite as busy and people are a little friendlier. There are more businesses that give job opportunities to people with disabilities and less buildings that aren’t accessible to wheelchairs.  Most importantly though, there are more people willing to help others in my New York.

There have been so many times when I was writing either for myself or others that I didn’t realize how I really felt about something until the words were right on the paper. As people of society we feel like everything we have to write about has to sound formal and proper, but that’s not the case at all. Writing is made for free expression, but I do understand sometimes where we would need to make our writing proper for research papers, an argumentative essay and anything that has to do with professionally presenting a point.

People shouldn’t be scared to share their opinions if it helps them become stronger and more empowered.  We should accept others and their opinions because views of the world should never be one-sided.  Writing is the best way that I can show my opinions and views of the world to others and I hope people look at my writing as being well-rounded.  As a writer, I want to make my opinion heard, but I also want others to understand that writing could be a good way for them to express their feeling and opinions too.

Writing is absolutely terrifying and I understand that completely.  It’s like falling from a cliff without knowing what to expect at the bottom.  Not all prying eyes will like what you put out there, but if it matters to you, put it out there anyway.  Some of the most famous writers were told that their pieces would never go anywhere, but are any one of us the kind of person that just gives up?

When you are inspired to write, please do it.  You never know who will be reading.