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I don't want to be any kind of writer, really. When I hear "writer" you think of some great cliche, like there's this self-pride and arrogance surrounding the whole pastime. I have to believe that there are an overwhelming amount of people who enjoy writing about their lives and their experiences without labeling themselves as something they aren't. I'd like to be thought of as such: someone who likes putting thoughts and ideas down on paper without really thinking of anything else. In essence I guess that's really what a writer could be defined as, but like I said before, it' not something I take seriously enough to give myself that title.

It's difficult for me not to write down things that pass through my mind recently. This is part of the reason I started keeping journals a couple years ago, to record things I find interesting and informational. If I don't keep these logs I feel like I'm letting something pass through my fingers and pass fade into oblivion. Once you become aware of yourself and the things you think everyday it almost seems necessary to write it all down. I can't tell you how many brainchildren I've been able to put on paper over the past 24 months. Not that I'm even writing them down for any particular purpose, to have something to go back and reference when your mind is feeling rather sluggish is reason enough for me to take out a pen a couple times a days and jot down a line or two.

To those who don't write or keep some kind of journal: think of all of the great ideas and quotes and theories you've come across over the course of your lifetime that you can not recall now, simply because your brain doesn't have the capacity to remember them. It's discouraging when you realize how much you're forgotten. If you can purchase a notepad, I advise you do. If not because you want to remember that worth remembering then because life is too short to continue living in a way where everything passes by you. The more things I write down, the more I think and challenge ideas and formulate hypothesis. Every thought is a stroke of the brush to the vast white canvas you are when you're first born.

I find it funny and somewhat ironic that I started this article trying to separate myself from the writer cliche, only continuing to lecture on how writing is an important part of life. Then again, maybe that's the point. Writing is vitial to growing as a person and establishing character. Writing is thinking with permanence, a tangible script of that which runs through your mind. This is the very reason I enjoy writing; not because I want to be associated with the "writer" type, but because it's so crucial to my own development. Again, that's probably what most writers would say when asked why they write. Fuck it, I guess I'm a writer. A modest, humble, level-headed writer.

I'm thinking I'm going to start writing more and more, especially on the computer, since it's so easy and doesn't take such a physical toll on my delicate, delicate fingers. It's nice to be be able to write at great lengths. I don't usually do so, for the most part I write no more than a paragraph, but with the introduction of the computer to my life, I'm thinking it'll be real simple. I'll give the passages numbers, because numbers have this inexplicable order to them that just makes them ideal for keeping things organized.