Why I Write

In elementary school, my boundless imagination kept me up at night. Every corner of my room was covered in composition notebooks filled with every thought, story or idea that came to mind. To this day, my first draft always begins with a pen and paper, however, my passion for writing has ebbed and flowed over the years.

In high school, I excelled in my English courses. I was disciplined in writing precisely what was asked of me: typically an extended essay about the literary techniques in a novel I was assigned to read. My interest in writing took a back seat, while I became a writing machine on topics with little significance.

My writing style had become so refined that while taking Creative Writing in 11th grade, I struggled immensely to write with unrestricted guidelines. I attribute my success in this class to the asynchronous format that it took up halfway through the semester, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead of writing as a final assignment, I was asked to show proof of what I was doing to keep busy while locked at home — which was anything but writing.

Going into my first year at Ohio State, I was excited to gain experience in communications writing, an area I had an interest in but never had the opportunity to try. I was surprised when my introductory communications courses, Communication in Society and History of Communication, only asked for one to two-page reflection papers instead of portfolio-building pieces.

My second year at OSU was my first time gaining experience in the world of news writing. In my Writing for Strategic Communication course, I was tasked with combining creativity and facts for a feature article on an Ohio State student. I once again struggled to channel the creative writing skills I had in my early years, however, in doing so I recognized that my creativity had not disappeared it had just been repressed.

As I continue to mature as a writer and gain more press writing skills, I am relearning to use my creativity and curiosity as an asset rather than a disadvantage. I look forward to the classes I have yet to take, experiences I have yet to have, and notebooks I have yet to fill in the next steps of my career.