The paradox of writing and words

By Cheryl Chiu

Writing is both the most essential and most trivial thing in the world. For writers, apply the same adjectives, but tenfold.

For most of my life, I have wanted to be a writer. Not just any writer, but one that changed lives, rekindled spirits and broke hearts.

How did I come to acquire this fanciful notion?

Well, since I was a little girl, I was an avid reader; so avid, in fact, that the characters in books nearly replaced the friends I did not have, the plot lines replaced the experiences I wished I had and the authors replaced the mentors I never really knew.

I would lock myself in my room on rainy days and spend hours sitting cross-legged on my bed, bent ardently over the paperback in my lap as if I would fall straight into the story.

Oh, how I longed to fall into a story, any story.

Stories always seemed so much more exciting, romantic and mysterious than real life could ever be. The ironic thing is, as I read more and more about life, I experienced less and less of it.

The more exciting the stories became, the more I would read and the less time I would spend in the real world. Needless to say, when a child spends all her time reading instead of playing with friends, certain social skills are never developed, and life itself becomes quite dull.

In spite of this, I was quite happy with the worlds I was busy discovering, and I acquired seemingly profound insights that staved off the loneliness, at least for awhile.

That's why I say writing is essential -- not just for disseminating entire movements of thought, subverting governments or spreading the truth, but also for the little girl who feels lonely sometimes and needs to read about people that live lives that are far different from her own.

While I am a proponent of writing for all of the things that it has given me, I also recognize that writing can be trivial. Books remain only words. It is not the words themselves, but the feelings these words ignite in people that move them to action and bring about lasting change.

For people like me who can get a little bit lost in those words, we might wake up one day, a freshly minted adult already in college, wondering where the last 18 years have gone.

It isn't quite as dramatic as I make it out to be, but often when I am asked to think about the best times I've had in the past year, my mind immediately goes to some of the more amazing books I have read. I think of the characters that influenced me, rather than the real-life experiences I've had or the real people I've met. It gets to be unsettling, to say the least, but I find good books can remove me from reality anytime I feel like I need a break.

Although I recognize its shortcomings, I would still like to be a writer. I know being one and making it is one of the more difficult things to do; there is no application or interview process. It is writing, submitting, getting rejection slips and trying again, and again.

You may work for an audience, but I believe good writers write mainly for themselves. When you write for yourself, you know the words are truthful because they are coming right from your soul.

I guess my lifelong relationship with books has given me no other choice. With all these words I've devoured over the years, it's time I gave some of them back.

Cheryl Chiu is a sophomore psychology major.