My life’s initial journey was to find a passion, and I found it.
As I look back on my school days in 1996, I realise that all throughout those long years, I was searching for something. I was trying to find my true self, trying to find my calling. High school was without a doubt some of the toughest years I have ever encountered with so many things to focus on. At this point, I could not accept the fact that I was entering a new chapter in my life. I was blinded by the fact that everything I was destined to accomplish from that moment on was a path that would eventually lead me to where I am today.
I discovered that I had a passion for writing. We were assigned to write on all sorts of things – and of course, my favourite things were writing poetry and art-and-culture reviews. When I started to constantly write essays in order to present them in front of my class, I discovered that writing was what I truly loved to do. I discovered that I had a talent. I was able to write in order to express my feelings – something I couldn’t do with just simple, spoken words.
For me, writing is not just an act of putting different words together on a piece of paper. Writing is a way of escaping my struggles, and in a way, it works as a medicine when I’m facing a problem. I realised that with my writing, I could be the whoever I wanted to be without anyone judging my true self. People see me as the tough girl who is not afraid of anything, but little do people know that I have a sensitive side. I write to satisfy my need of discovering my own identity.
A pen and paper are my best friends when I’m going through a hard time. I am a private person, and I tend to build walls around me since my deepest fear is to get hurt. When I write, I enter a different world – a world in which all of my worries and problems disappear for a brief period. Instead of talking to my loved ones about my feelings, I prefer to reveal myself to my piece of writing.
I wanted my writing to matter one day. I wanted people to know me. I wanted people to read my work and connect with it. Writing makes me feel alive – and throughout the years, it has helped me become who I am today. To me, I’m just a girl who, like many other young adults, has gone through a process of self-discovery. When I write, I feel free. No one can tell me what to write and what not to write. This long and difficult road has taught me that in order to find your way, you must find something to fight for – something that matters. I learned that no matter how lost you may feel, there is always a way out of that darkness. You just have to believe that someday, in your own special way, you will change the world… even if you don’t know it yet.