An Open Letter to Myself on Writing

Dear Hie,

Congratulations!

You finally found time to write again. It has been a while since you wrote for yourself.

Remember the reasons why you wrote before?

Writing got you through repressive times as an adolescent, to voice out your feelings without anyone censoring you.

Writing got you awards in school competitions. Writing too became your basic skill in college and at work.

But why did you give up writing for yourself? Honestly?

You gave up writing because you preferred to put your thoughts in the memo app of your phone. You stopped because a loved one used your personal writing against you, to judge who you are and that hurt a lot.

Looking through some blogs again has revived that interest in you.

Writing is therapeutic and freeing. Writing is also a skill you can bank on for extra income. Who knows, in the future, you could be a full-time freelancer.

Please do not stop writing.

Use it to find and express yourself, to sort out your thoughts, to help you get through difficult times. But most of all, write because the Lord gave it to you as a gift. Use this gift of written words to help others.

Right now, you are definitely scared and shy. You are thinking your writing voice is not as good as the bloggers whose amazing blogs you have read. That you might not be as well versed and as confident as them.

But then, everything in this world that matters takes time and work. You just read that these incredible bloggers put in a lot of hard work to get where they are right now. They made a lot of mistakes but these didn’t stop them at all!

Just keep on writing.

Keep on practicing.

You have your own voice.

Write from the heart.

Write what you know.

And when unsure, still write. That’s the good thing about editing.

Maybe, just maybe, in the future, you too can be like these confident bloggers you admire. For now, you just have to start writing and valuing this craft.

Love,

Your future writer self :)