Reign Sosebee, Campus Carrier content creator
When I was younger, I loved creating my own stories and worlds. I would put pen to paper and lose myself in the journey. As I got older, though, I forgot how freeing writing can be and the relief it can provide. This is why everyone should write.
Writing has many benefits. First, free writing can make you a better student. Writing grows one’s vocabulary. How? The more a person free writes, the more words they learn to use to describe something. It is redundant to repeat the same words, so a person will start to use the thesaurus to learn new words. It also improves the articulation and expression of words and thoughts; it makes a person more literate. This is necessary for essays and writing assignments. Free writing can greatly improve a student’s school writing.
Next, the more one writes without the parameters and guidelines of a discussion board or post, the more they learn how to use their creative and out-of-the-box thinking. A lot of school requires students to think in a very linear way. Sit, listen to a lecture, study the material, test and do it again. However, this learning does not prepare the student for real-life situations that require creative problem-solving skills. They only teach a student how to be silent and conform, but not how to bring their own ideas, inputs, and creative thoughts to the table.
Not only that, but how to articulate these things into intellectual thought. In many discussions today, there are two kinds of people. Those who are extremely passionate and then the rest of the class who is silent. Those who have creative voices tend to be the loudest and there is always a lack of them in a classroom. I argue that this setup, one where the majority are silent followers, is a mirror of politics and places of discussion today. Since the public school system encourages students to remain quiet, this action will not stop in college unless open thoughts are welcome.
Not every person will be in corporate, in fact, most students attend college so that they will not be dependent on the endless nine-to-five. When one writes, it strengthens one’s skill to input uniquely over simply receiving.
Furthermore, writing can be very therapeutic and healthy. Many people struggle with expressing their emotions or releasing them. Writing is one of the best ways to do this. If one is stuck in their feelings for someone, they can write them a goodbye letter. This can help create a sense of closure and also let the person go. In writing strong emotions down, a person learns control over the reactions certain feelings bring. They no longer fester and boil over the surface. Overall, one will gain great emotional maturity with writing.