A Writer’s Dilemma

In secondary school, when I used to have to write stories and letters and articles mainly for exams, it never really seemed like hard work because it felt like the words just flowed out of me and whatever I wrote usually ended up being nice enough to earn me an ‘A’ in English.

I didn’t appreciate how much time, effort and creativity went into bringing my thoughts to life, because I believed that I was a “natural” writer, and I didn’t need to stress my brain because no matter what, my work would be excellent. Of course, it didn’t help that I kept getting praised for my writings by other people, regardless of how bad I thought it was.

Getting into university, medical school to be precise, and realising that I wouldn’t have as much time as I liked to keep writing, and that nobody was just going to hand me a topic to write about, really killed what little writing spirit I had. I realised that I would actually have to think for myself in order to come up with things to write about, and my life revolved too much around medicine for me to focus on other things.

So, I stopped writing for about four years. In the meantime, I read and admired other people’s works, and the more I read, the less motivated I became to write because I felt like I could never be that good.

During the Covid break, however, I learned about a writing challenge and decided to take it up for old times’ sake. It’s not like I had anything else to do while at home, anyway. So, I played around with some words, trying to get back in the swing of things. It took a few days, but I finally gave it to my dad and a few friends to review.

They all commended it, made some corrections here and there, and told me to let everyone else see. I was quite apprehensive at first because I kept thinking “this isn’t good enough for so many people to read,” but I overcame my fear and put it out there. The feedback was amazing and so I decided to write some more, and long story short, I joined the editorial committee of my association to keep me motivated enough to read and review the works of others, and to write a few of mine.

I guess what I’m saying, in a nutshell, is that regardless of what you’re doing with your life right now, be it studying or practising medicine, law, or even accounting, if there is something you’re particularly passionate about, don’t just give it up because of time constraint, or because of fear of public opinion.

No It’s okay to put it on pause for a little bit, but always remember to come back to it when you have had enough time to rest and put things in order, because you never know if that ‘hobby’ could be the thing that saves you when you need it most.