Words.

Maddie Gort
Aug 28, 2017 · 3 min read

Words can mean so many things. Whether it be verbal or written, words hold so much power even if they remain unheard. I don’t always use my words wisely, often I speak before I think. However in times of trouble or happiness I often seek a piece of paper and a pen to retell my day for no sought out audience, just me.

From a young age I would write, it was never consistent. Sometimes it would be daily or otherwise once in a blue moon. I would often write about my day at school, retelling any ‘drama’ in my life and hating on the world for the sorrows I had, teenage angst and all of that. Yet what I remember writing about most, or rather gently encouraged to write about, was my grief. Being young and troubled, I had constant conflicts going on in my head that I needed to express but wasn’t sure how. From this I reflect on the importance of writing. It doesn’t matter if I am a good writer or not, it doesn’t matter that it might not be read. What matters is by writing down my thoughts, my worries and constant overcast of emotions, the power that they have over me lifts ever so slightly, so that over time the weight those so called ‘words’ that sum up how I am feeling don’t control me anymore. There is with out a doubt that some days are better than others, my journal is proof of that, but that’s not to say that we should be focusing on only the good days or only the bad.

Everyday is a roller coaster, we either choose to ride it with our eyes open to perspective or closed with fear.

Society now is controlled by social media, every day we face an array of emotions, thoughts and behaviours just by scrolling through a feed. There is a constant unconscious pressure to process so many ‘words’ that our only instinct of letting out any words ourself is on the same feed everyone else is seeing, and so the cycle continues. We are drawn towards our impulsions to express ourselves, often without any time for thought, so that we can receive an immediate response from an audience of which the majority doesn’t care. Yet we persist to reach out, turning a blind eye to the only one who will listen, you.

We are taught at the beginning of our schooling that writing is intended for an audience, we are made to believe this means more than one. We aren’t told however that we are part of that audience and the hardest and most influential is yourself. It is confronting at times reading back what ever spills out on paper, often I laugh or cry with shock because before it was written down I denied I ever felt any of it at all. It doesn’t make me weak nor put me at risk of comment, it is just for me or who I choose to share it with. I write for purpose, the purpose to understand my words and what they mean to me.

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Maddie Gort
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