I’ve always liked to write. I don’t mean it in the way people usually mean when they say someone is a “writer.” I’ve never studied writing beyond the required school classes.
I’ve never wanted to write a novel, become a journalist, or make writing my profession. But I’ve been writing for almost as long as I can remember.
I received a diary as a gift when I was about 8 years old. It was very popular to have a diary at that time, and I was very excited about it. I wrote down my thoughts, experiences, feelings, and whatever was happening in my life. I didn’t do it because someone else was going to read it. After all, a diary is meant to be private. I did it because I knew what a diary was for. I started writing, and it started my impulse to write down my world.
I also loved writing letters. I had pen pals and loved both sending and receiving snail mail. I even made my own stationery, decorating paper to write on and making cards. Looking back, I realize I liked putting my thoughts into words and sending them somewhere.
Later, in my teens and college years, sites like LiveJournal and MySpace became popular as online personal diaries grew. I remember my college roommate writing the most beautiful narratives on her LiveJournal. (Side note: she later started a business becoming a real-life Cyrano de Bergerac.) I wanted to explore that more, so I continued writing, putting my daily life onto paper. It helped me process my experiences without me even realizing it.
Then, when I traveled in my 20s, I wrote a personal travel blog so that my friends and family back home could keep up with me. I loved experiencing something during the day and writing about it at night - not just to share it with others, but to keep as a record for myself.
The plan was never to become a “content creator.” I don’t even know if such a term existed back in those days. (I like to think I was in the first wave of original travel bloggers, but maybe I’m dreaming.)
Then I started this blog, From Pennies to Plenty, in 2016. The content has changed over the years, and my reasons for blogging have changed too. For many years, I blogged as a business. I focused on growing readership and monetizing the blog in various ways.
Nowadays, I blog about the things I want to write about simply because I want to, regardless of how many people will read my writing. My blog has changed, but the impulse to write has remained.
And after all these years, I still don’t consider myself a writer. I’ve never been to a writing workshop. I don’t have writing credentials. I don’t even think I got an A in English class!
I make plenty of mistakes when I write, and my grammar isn’t perfect.
But I don’t actually think that matters too much. I don’t have to be a professional dancer to dance. I don’t have to be a professional pianist to play the piano. And I don’t have to be a professional writer to write.
It’s just something I do, and something I’ve been doing for much of my life, to express myself and process the world.
Maybe that’s enough to make me a writer, even if I’ve never called myself one.