Why Writing?
A self reflection of the journey on Medium
I published my first Medium article on 17 June 2022. 20 days so far, published 6 articles (excluding this one) and gained 54 followers.
Statistically, this is not very good progress compared to other writers. However, personally, it’s a huge accomplishment.
I am not a native English speaker and maybe you have already guessed it from my writings. I have always struggled with writing even in my own language, Chinese. When I was deciding which course to study at university, I chose IT over Business as I didn’t want to take the English entry exam. Thank God that I only had to write in JAVA and Python most of the time.
What changed?
I recently started studying Master in Counselling, and we are asked to write a journal for each lecture. I definitely procrastinated a lot. At the end of each lecture, I received so much content and I had to arrange those stuff in my head and somehow bring them down to paper. That process is hard. I need to fully understand the lecture so that I can turn what the lecturer said into my own knowledge. Then write them down structurally and logically. After enduring the hard work of writing journals a few times, I started seeing the benefits of it.
I could remember the lectures better because there was the process of output. I felt my brain was clearer. I love the process of arranging all the messy pieces, filtering and sorting, and then producing the final logical and personal piece. I like how Jordan B Peterson described the process:
The primary reason to write an essay is so that the writer can formulate and organize an informed, coherent and sophisticated set of ideas about something important.
So I extended writing to other areas of my life. I like to reflect upon anything that happened in my daily life. I tried to jot down my thoughts in point form in iPhone Notes, however, I rarely go back to them and those points were just gone like my short-term memory.
Then I remembered Medium, so I tried to publish one on 17 June. Surprisingly, people were responding to it and there were discussions in the comments. I was so flattered. There are people who are reading my writings other than my husband and my teachers! I can’t thank enough my followers and the people who responded to my articles through claps or comments or highlights. It just boosted my confidence and gave me tremendous motivation to continue writing here.
With all the support, one day, I will reach 100 followers and join the MPP. One day, I will use the money earned here to buy myself a cup of coffee. I hope I will always remember why I started writing on Medium. I hope I won’t be fixated on the statistics or the money. I write so I can think better, I write so I can learn more efficiently, and I write so I can simply spend alone time with my own thoughts.
To end off, let me share more quotes from Jordan B Peterson on the importance of writing to encourage everyone:
If you learn to think, through writing, then you will develop a well-organized, efficient mind — and one that is well-founded and certain.
Don’t ever underestimate the power of words. Without them, we would still be living in trees. So when you are writing an essay, you are harnessing the full might of culture to your life. That is why you write an essay (even if it has been assigned). Forget that, and you are doing something stupid, trivial and dull. Remember it, and you are conquering the unknown.
