Day 54: Connectivity

Writing.

Why do I write? Why does it mean so much to me? Why do I feel so compelled, as much now as when I was a child and a teenager, to write down my thoughts? Why do I spend so much time every day in keeping up this blog? To what purpose does it serve? What is it about writing that makes me feel so...alive, so human?

The answer to all those questions comes down to one thing - connectivity.

For as long as I can remember, ever since I was old enough to hold a pen in my hand, I have felt a love towards writing. I remember being placed in the Young Authors Club when I was in elementary school which was a club for kids who enjoyed writing so much that they took on extra work and assignments so that they could do even more. I wrote my own birthday/Mother's Day/Father's Day cards for all my family during my entire childhood with poems that always seemed to make them cry. I wrote speeches for public speaking contests - placing second and third place in two different years at Sherbrooke. I wrote dozens upon dozens of letters to penpals all around the world during my teen years. At one point I even had over 20 penpals! I wrote poetry and short stories all throughout high school and beyond, and have saved much of it over the years. I wrote occasional editorial pieces and opinion articles for SFU's student newspaper. I've written speeches for all sorts of important events - an 'Ode To My Parents' for their 25th wedding anniversary, a eulogy for my grandpa's funeral, a best man's congratulatory wishes at my best friend's wedding. I've kept a diary for the last two and a half years leading up to Korea, and now, I have this - my daily blog.

And again, what do they all have in common? What was the single reason why I feel such a yearning to write all my thoughts down on paper, many of them personal and private, and share with others? Why does all of this writing release feel like it nourishes my soul?

Connectivity.

For all of my life I have felt such an insatiable need, a desire, a yearning, a lust, an emotion, a passion, a love, for communicating and connecting with other people. It makes me feel alive. It allows me to show the people in my life how much they mean to me. It makes me feel like I matter to others. To reach out to others, and to be able to evoke a response or an emotion, is one of the simplest yet most beautiful things of all that is to be human. To write is my way of reaching out. I may not be the world's best writer, but as long as I am alive, then in some form or another I will never stop writing. The form and delivery may change over the years, but the outlet will always exist. Some pieces of writing are meant to be shared with only one person, and some with many, but they all serve the same purpose, they all accomplish the same mission, they all result in the same feeling of....peace.

I can't imagine my life without writing. I wouldn't know how to live if I couldn't. Writing is how I relate to the world, how I process my emotions and feelings, how I get over hardship and pain, how I express love, how I reach out to...whoever is listening... To feel connected to others is the ultimate high, and it's a drug that I just can't get enough of. I'm addicted, through and through, and just can't ever seem to get enough. It's not a matter of never being satisfied, it's a matter of knowing that there's no limits to how connected I can feel with those in my life.

Thank you for reading my blog. Whether it's one person or a million who's reading this, it means more to me than you'll ever know. This blog also serves as a way for me to keep 'historical records' of all my experiences here in Korea, something that I know I'll truly cherish for years to come in the future. But, more importantly (at least in the present time) it's my way of communicating with all the wonderful friends and family that I have scattered around this world. I may be thousands of kilometres from you in physical space, but writing this helps me feel like you're right here with me. Thanks for being on the receiving end. Let's keep the high going. (I don't ever wanna come down.)

:-)