By Timothy Roe, Staff Writer
Writing is–writing is thinking. Gaining control over the pen is bringing structure to the mind, and the mind is the thing that coins us human in a society. Every time you write, you train yourself to think. You teach yourself to produce thoughts in a way that’s best for you and those receiving it. The scratching on paper and clicking on keys are simply methods used to make the real, abstract thing, the message. If you can get that message to other people in a way that’s meaningful, you hold the power to win. Getting others to think is as potent as any other life skill. After all, half of living is thinking.
The other half is feeling. Reflecting and understanding the way you feel in certain situations is the first step in remedying things like anxiety and depression. And understanding these things comes as simply as writing raw feelings on a scratch piece of paper–the tangibility of these emotions relieves the brain in a way that’s similar to venting, though much less harmful. You look straight at the problems that consume you day to day, the problems that are filtered out by the hustle of classes and work, and learn to effectively cope with them. If you can take hold of these feelings, instead of letting them control you, the power of rationality becomes a multi-purpose tool that can help you across situations and with other people. Once you learn what it is to control your own world, you’re able to reciprocate with other people’s worlds. And that’s extremely potent, as a human.
Humans are stupidly social creatures. Communication is to humans as water is to plants. In this sense, writing is the flowering pot. It delivers thoughts on a clear pavement towards the mind, either befriending or stabbing it; sometimes it doesn’t make it. Potent writing is what pushes it onwards and keeps it beating. Have you ever listened to a song that gripped at you for a moment, that seemed to add on to the core of your being? That song is a writing, something that formed an illusory connection between you and the person who wrote it. It has a certain control over you now, simply because you understood it in a way that’s meaningful to you. That’s the power of writing; It’s layers upon layers of thinking, made for the purpose of communication with a heart.
If you can write critically, you can think critically. Knowing what you’re thinking about on a deep level and exploring the possibilities that reach beyond your understanding of that subject are what elevate you to the thing that you’re inclined to aim at: a better you.
