DEFY!
I write this with no thought for impressions, no qualms for ‘proper’ cohesive structures. I write this without minding that (according to Tumblr) people will most probably stop reading at the 350-word mark.
Not that I don’t want to be read at all. What I want is to defy.
Who said that I have to make the point right away? Who said I couldn’t put fantasy and humdrum real life side by side? Who said that every word, every syllable has to be calculated?
The truth is, I’ve always wanted someone to snoop through my diary. It would probably be nice to see some highlighted passages, or maybe a few words written on the margins.
Those letters in the diary are hidden songs. Those are the sharp replies bit back, held back – else, the naked loneliness everyone occasionally feels. Those words are human.
Somewhere out there, someone else is frustrated with engineering school. Someone’s wondering if there’s such a thing as writer’s block. Someone’s reading Shakespeare. Someone’s blue. Yellow. Green. Purple. Crimson. Somewhere out there, someone’s gazing at the same star as you, maybe dreaming the same thing.
Writing isn’t only a performative act. It is the simple gesture of connecting, too. We don’t write merely to have readers where we want them to be. We don’t write to impress, all the time.
We write to set ourselves free. Reader and writer both, because somewhere out there somebody else can feel the same emotions.
I want to write of my unrequited love for math. I want to write of cuddly little cousins. I want to write of awkward encounters with old friends. I want to write of pain. I want to write of happiness. I want to write of freedom.
I want to create a whole new world, and share it with you.
I want to defy.
We do.
