Writing

I once saw this quote - by an American Author, Jonathan Safran Foer - on writing:

"Why do I write? It’s not that I want people to think I am smart, or even that I am a good writer. I write because I want to end my loneliness."

I instantly liked what he said because that was simply how I got started on writing.

It was snowing heavily on that day - my first time seeing the snow. I was in my college's dormitory room with my room-mate, a Chinese girl from Malaysia. She then started composing a Chinese poem. A combination of seeing her action, the snow, and the feeling of being home-sick, hit me. Melancholy engulfed my heart. That led me to grab a pen and paper and wrote a short Burmese poem of 4 lines or so. I never kept that poem but it somehow got me started on the path of writing.

Since then, despite the years, different experiences, and varying outlooks in life, one thing that hasn't changed, is my interest in writing. How I became passionate about writing is a mystery - even to myself.

Though my dad had a short stint as a writer for a journal during his university days, he halted all those right after the graduation to concentrate on his career. My mum has never been fond of writing. And, I chose to take Principles of Accounting over Literature during secondary school. My choice to embark on an engineering degree should have drawn me even further away from writing.

Despite all those, since that fateful day in college, writing has remained close to my heart.

Writing has become an outlet for my emotions. It provides a platform to voice my opinions. It helps to transform my reflections into words so that I can be reminded of those over time. Through writing, I am able to create stories by weaving together observations I made of others in daily life.

I always tell myself that life is full of uncertainties. However, one thing for sure is that, I will always go on writing.