On Writing

Before any blog post, I usually ask myself what new things happened in my life which I'd want to make a post about. Yesterday, I'd scratched the bottom of the barrel. Most of the things I considered would've been considered redundant to previous posts and other ideas, well, let's just say I'm not ready to comment on them in full detail.

So while thinking about a topic, an idea popped into my head -Writing! I'd write about writing. I realized I've never written anything about writing and how good of an outlet it can be for someone like me. It's a hobby I've picked up, yes. But it's our hobbies which keep us from insanity especially when work becomes repetitive.

Writing allows me to make permanent the thoughts in my head as they flow. I may not have any readers and writing would still be amusing to me. Ten years from now, I could look back at my posts and be either impressed or disappointed in my 2017 self. Either way, I'm excited at the prospect. I may believe in something totally and radically different from what I believe now. My posts may even serve as an eyewitness to this gradual change in belief and I find that exciting.

Writing allows me to pour out into words my thoughts which otherwise would've just stayed there. I believe that ideas are like wine. Before you let them out, you need them to age well. As a result, I hold off writing any essay until a few days before the deadline or hold off writing a blog post about an issue until the issue becomes stale and commenting on it would be useless. Writing allows me to let my ideas free. They never stop aging in the old head factory as they remain my own, but at the very least, they see the light of day.

Writing allows me to think more about my thoughts. You can't tell the number of characters you see in this post is the number of times I press the backspace key. I know I'm not the best typist and that has some effect but as I write these ideas down, I think on their truth value. I think about what difference it makes if I change the word "thought" to "idea" and if I get the thought idea through better that way (Also, strikethrough is a great tool).

Writing allows me to chain certain posts one after another. Let me explain. One of my posts was about the LTFRB disallowing Grab/Uber  from operating in the Philippines. While writing about that issue, I realized I actually want to write about authority. While writing about authority, I realized I wanted to write about mothers and this string of posts will eventually have a big bow wrapped around it in the end. It's addicting really. I'm not changing any lives but my mind feels like it can shout to the world more.

Writing allows the little writer in me to grow. Had you asked a 15 year old Jonathan, he'd probably tell you he wanted to write for a living. After studying engineering for 5 years and working with engineers for the next 4 years, there wasn't much in the way for creative license. Most of my reports involved numbers and I usually just let the figures speak for themselves. Now, I'm getting back to writing and it feels good. It's like the little child in me is jumping for joy at the chance at writing again. 

I can go on and on about how much I enjoy writing and the positive effects it has on my life but I'll stop here. Point is, I enjoy writing and hope one day I can write for a much wider audience. But even if I'm never given such a platform, I'd still continue to write. Maybe to sum it all up, I don't write to be read. I write because it's good for me.