National Day on Writing - #WhyIWrite

October 20th is a special day for two reasons. First, it's my mother's birthday (Hi mom!). Second, it's a day set aside by the National Council of Teaching English, the National Writing Project, and the Teaching Channel to reflect on and celebrate why we love to write!  People are turning to social media and using #WhyIWrite to share their thoughts on the subject, but I'd like to share some of my own here with you, my wonderful readers.

Those of you who know me well are aware of the fact that I struggle with a speech impediment. I've had a stutter since my early grade school years, which makes it hard to communicate with other people. I stutter when I'm excited, stressed, sad, happy, or angry; basically, if I'm not at an emotional level of zero, I'm bumbling my way through sentences. Over the years, I've come up with my own system of modifications to make the stutter less apparent in my speech, but I'm still nowhere close to perfect. Writing has become a way to express myself when I can't necessarily do so with my mouth.

I stared writing at a young age. There is a pile of diaries in my closet filled with the scatterbrained scribblings of eight-year-old me to the angsty rants from the teenage days. Also, hiding somewhere in that pile is a Taylor Swift-esque attempt at songwriting that consists of me trying (unsuccessfully) to rhyme the names of the boys who broke my heart with fatal diseases. Anyway, even though I wrote a lot, I did it for myself.  I thought that people weren't interested in what I had to say, or I thought that maybe I just sucked at writing. Either way, I didn't share my creations (the good or the bad) with anyone, which sort of defeated the purpose.

Only in recent years have I felt confident enough in my writing to start sharing my work with others. It started on a small scale by publishing a few devotions here and there. One of those devotions will be included in a synod-wide publication that's coming out later this year! Yikes! And then last May, I threw all caution to the wind and created this blog! Two months later I got a sponsor, and now in October I've found a group of dedicated readers. I'm so proud of the progress I've made and the outlet of expression that this site has become.

So why do I write? I write to share. And through this blog I'm sharing two of the things that I value most with you: literature and my faith. No stuttering or stammering, just my words on a page...well, a screen. So, thank you to all of you who have taken the time to read what I have to say, because without you I'd be back to writing really bad songs in my journals. I'm looking forward to continuing this journey and publishing the things that you guys want to read. I love you all!

Now it's your turn! Write a post on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook and use #WhyIWrite to tell the world what inspires you!