Writing Relief: Guest Post by Sadie Anderson
Writing is a survival skill that quickly takes a larger importance when we attend school. The most caring teachers gift students with the ability to express themselves through writing. In today’s society, we are inundated with writing. People write blogs, essays, social media posts, poems, stories, and more. I currently have twelve unread articles in my saved files on Facebook, while I scroll through others on my lunch break or while I should be asleep. The question remains, why do we write?
No life is perfect, so all life must adapt to
experiences. Often, circumstances feel inexplicable, unfair, and limited.
Coping strategies assist in the process of understanding the past as it relates
to our present. Some choose counseling. Writing is either
forgotten or used as a tool within a strategy. Yet, it is writing which allows
the emotions found within our struggles to leave us, while remaining
confidential unless shared. So, I write.
The importance of writing for self-expression guided
me through adolescence. I have never written more frequently than when I was a
teen, perhaps because I was experiencing all of life’s traumas and tragedies
for the first time. At a time in life when every struggle seems as if it could
end you, how do you make sense of it? When your parents divorce, or your
home life is unsafe, or you have an incurable illness, or you experience loss
and heartbreak, or you leave home for the first time, what helps you not only
survive, but thrive? In my experience, through writing about aching and hoping
and growing and leaving, I made it.
Inspiration for writers often comes from reading. My
husband always comments on the dozens of folded pages or highlights throughout
a novel I read because I want to remember things that stand out to me. I need
to acknowledge eloquence when it is found, or important ideals and reminders
for continued growth as a person. Writing may be a line, a poem, a story, or a
compilation. For me, writing has never been a full-length novel with one plot
pyramid. Realistically, life has always felt more complicated than that.
Writing is about strung together moments in time that have molded me into the
person I am today. The teacher, helping other children find their voices, as
someone once did for me. The partner, learning to lean on and grow with my
husband. The mother, admiring my daughter’s budding personality and trying to
see the world through her innocent eyes. And still, the daughter, trying to
understand my past while navigating my relationships with family from the
perspective of an adult.
In many ways, I continue writing to cope with those
same challenges I first faced as a child. We often revisit the same struggles
from different vantage points as we grow intellectually through our experiences
to learn something new about ourselves. We all have these moments and memories
that stay with us. As a writer, the hope is that your writing becomes the
reading that inspires someone else to write and share pieces of their stories,
or maybe it simply becomes the pages marked as reminders for someone else’s
life. There will forever be more heartache, more loss, more fear, and more growth.
In turn, there will always be relief in writing.
Sincerely,
Sadie
N. Anderson
Comments
Post a Comment