WP4: Writing and my VOICE
Intro:
Writing feels like an old friend and mentor, familiar yet distant. It is like stars in the sky — — intangible and physically far away, but I know I can always pour my emotions on papers or documents and find consolation and personal growth from writing. It is a channel through which my VOICE can be heard and echoed back to me. It is a way to explore the world around me and my place in this world. It is a documentation of memories, the rawest emotions, and the imponderabilia of everyday life. After temporarily hating writing and struggling to find my identity, I found my VOICE through writing again. Being a writer is now both a crucial part and an expression of my identity. Through writing, I also realized the multi-layered nature of identity — one can never and should never erase an aspect of their identity; there are only additions.
Base layer:
Writing made me realize that life is beautiful if I choose to see it that way. Thanks to the beauty of words, positivity became a cornerstone of my identity. The first time I fell in love with writing was when I read a beautiful description about the emotion “hate.” Before the ten-year-old girl could fully understand everything “hate” entitled, she saw that the ugliest word could be described in a beautiful way. Nothing in life is purely ugly or evil, even the emotion “hate”. Everything is multifaceted. I have strived to find beauty or another interpretation in everything ever since.
Writing has always been my emotional escape. I found peace in the sound of pen and pencil on paper, and the continuous keyboard clicking as random thoughts run free in my head. It is a time when my mind, body, and spirit work together to produce something meaningful. From birthday letters to fiction stories, daily journals to social commentaries blog posts, I found my VOICE in writing. Gradually, I constructed my worldview through the reflections I wrote down, which would be lost in my memory otherwise. The time I took to write my thoughts down gave me more time to dig deeper into my experiences and think about how they contributed to my identity formation.
Changes and interruptions:
Growing up, I wrote in Chinese. After I went abroad in 9th grade, I started writing in English for projects, essays, homework sheets… I felt somewhat uncomfortable with this transition. Some words simply do not have a corresponding word in English, causing the exact mood or tone I want to convey to be lost in translation. Besides, the TOEFL and SSAT study camps I had to urged us to focus on scaffolding academic essays, transition words, and flamboyant synonyms that make the essay sound smart. Entering high school, writing became matching sentences to formats. It felt like putting words into math formulas. The pieces I wrote for fun and documentation did not sound like me anymore due to the training. I lost my VOICE, both my writing voice and individuality.
Reclaiming my VOICE and identity:
Writing in this class is a redefinition of my identity as a writer and a person. Putting words on paper, digging deep into my thoughts, introspecting harder than ever, and pushing myself to discover more by asking “hows” and “whys” enabled me to tie the separate pieces of my identity together. Writing with a purpose ensures that my words are lively and meaningful to my audience.
When I write my thoughts down, they are more organized and extensive. I can dig deeper into my identity and form connections between my experiences. It gives me surprises — — things I have never thought about before. Before WP1, I never thought about how my cultural identity as an Asian daughter helped me define my intellectual identity. Before WP2, I never thought about how my experiences contributed to my personality traits. Before WP3, I never thought how the intersectionality of being a girl in a traditional Chinese family fueled the pride in my gender identity. Now, as I am writing WP4, I am connecting writing to my character development over time.
Writing brought more perspectives into my life and kept me open-minded. Three years ago, I started an online platform for teenagers to share their reflections on social phenomena and encounters. Through the forum, I learned the cultural traditions of diverse ethnic groups, different opinions on the same social issue, and complex emotions others felt in varying stages of life. When I share my stories, I want to make sure my readers can understand my words and feel my emotions from them. Forming my unique writing voice informs the purpose of my writing, making it easier for readers to understand and empathize. Writing is not only about introspection but also a tunnel connecting me to the world outside of my bubble. It is a conversation on paper or screen through which I hear my VOICE echoes, knowing that my thoughts create meaning for others.
As this course went on, my mindset towards academic writing changed. “Just write, write down the first thing you have in your mind” is a lesson I learned from the writing prompts in class. Academic writing should not restrain identity formation but rather encourage it. One prompt is “Write down something you want to burn right after.” I sat there for several minutes, and nothing came up. Any experience worth writing down is already an undeniable part of my identity. Good or bad, no aspect of identity should be “burned.” At that moment, I found what identity truly means. It is the compilation and interactions of experiences. Every thought and encounter interacts with one another to contribute to our overall identity and the complexity of human experiences.
Outro: Glad to have you back, my VOICE.
My VOICE is my presence in this world and everything I have to offer. Writing about and with it, I feel closer to myself and the world than ever. Writing is both a mentor and peer; as my writing style grows more mature, my VOICE is stronger, and my identity is clearer and shaping into what I want it to be. Thank you, writing, for guiding me to find my VOICE in both writing and life.
