Write On!

Trey Smith

From a very early age...I knew that I when I grew up I should be a writer. Between the ages of about seventeen and twenty-four I tried to abandon this idea, but I did so with the consciousness that I was outraging my true nature and that sooner or later I should have to settle down and write books.
~ from the essay, Why I Write, by George Orwell ~

This opening paragraph from Orwell's essay really resonates with me. From a very early age, I too realized that I had to write, though not necessarily as a profession. Writing has always been one of my great joys and it's hard for me to imagine my life without it.

Further on in the essay, Orwell talks of a lonely childhood and how writing provided an outlet. I was a lonely child too and so writing became a way for me to release my pent up frustrations with a world I couldn't seem to comprehend. Unlike most of my peers, I spent far more time with words than I did with people, so I suppose it's natural that words have become such intimate companions.

To this day, I can explain myself better in writing than I can in speaking. Face-to-face I'm often a jumble of words that frequently don't intersect with each other. Most people -- including members of my family -- have a hard time trying to decipher the point I'm trying to make. But this problem generally disappears when I write.

So, I write because I have to...and because I love to!