Is there anything more powerful in this world than writing? Is there anything more enchanting? Transporting? Transcending?
When I was a kid, and people asked me "What superpower would you want to have?" My answer would usually be mind-reading. Or super-speed.
I ran pretty well in high school, but I never was able to get that super-speed I always talked about. But I was able to figure out that mind reading was available to all of us. At least, some form of it.
Writing.
It's the literal process of organizing the voice bouncing around our heads into something that we and other people can see and try to understand. It's our brain trying to make sense of the world and represent itself tangibly. It's what we think of ourselves and the world around us. And when you read someone's writing, it's the closest you'll probably get to accessing their headspace.
And even as the technological vehicles of communication have changed around us in ways too complicated to comprehend; words are still the fuel that power that engine. The same fuel that was used to produce the documents that a lot of us (rightly or wrongly) look to for guidance. The Bible. The Constitution. Wikipedia. All words, sitting there waiting for us to interpret them.
I liked this quote in a book I read recently, “The power of words. They weaseled under door crevices and through keyholes. They hooked into individuals and wormed through generations.” Chloe Benjamin, The Immortalists.
We all have the power to use words, and with that comes a responsibility of using them as well as we possibly can, to represent our thoughts as truly as we can.
Writing is the most important skill you can develop for your life and career. There's probably an argument against that, depending on your profession, but I'd be willing to stake that the statement goes pretty far.
And while you're looking in your quiver of skills to sharpen when you have downtime, never forget that writing is the thing that got you in the door with the hiring manager at your current job. It's what got you through tough conversations over text. It's what builds relationships when you can't be with that person. It's how you express your love in birthday cards. It's how you express your anger when the world disservices you. And it's how to keep yourself sane when thoughts are bouncing around your brain so fast that your eyes can't close at night or you simply just need to put them into filing cabinets.
And when you want to spend the time and invest in your writing, here are a few resources I recommend:
Happy writing.