My Love Affair With Words

Let me tell you about my first love, that very first love I go way back with, that love that took away my innocence. I fell in love with words aged 13 when I wrote my first poem but that’s not where it started. I had a crush on word when I started reading and as I grew and my level of reading improved, so did the crush. Words were as magical back then as they are now, I used to wonder if I could make my own and as I grew that question was answered.

Word is the only lover that never left me, the only thing that hasn’t caused me pain, the only one that hasn’t lied, the mirror in which I see myself and the rest of the world. It has always come easier to me to write about something instead of talking about it. When I had my first heartbreak, I wrote it down to let it out. When I had a secret, I told word. When I was troubled I wrote about it, that way the problem was staring back at me and I could start solving it. When I was confused, I wrote it down to make sense of my thoughts. I wrote down my joys, celebrations, pain, aspirations and disappointments and over the years I’ve found that the best way to deal with it is to scribble it.

I always knew that I would have a career in creation and word best fitted that description because people didn’t understand what I meant by “creation”. With word I turn a blank page on to words, paragraphs, something for you to think about, something to help you out, inform you,amuse you or entertain you. Writing to me is like breathing, I write because I live, the same reason for breathing.

Writing is not just something I want to do for a living because writing is me, if I didn’t write I wouldn’t be alive so I write for sanity’s sake and that’s what everyone should aim for. Get paid for something that you have to do to live, if mathematics keeps you sane and is the only thing you feel normal doing, a career as a mathematician or accountant is perfect for you. Do something you cannot live without and it will soon pay you back not just financially but emotionally, spiritually and soulistically.

To make my writing professional and ensure that I could make a living out of it I went to school and studied Journalism. I’ve always loved reading, I’m easy to trust, naturally curious about the world so Journalism was a perfect fit.

The fact that I went to school for it means I value and acknowledge the importance of education because no matter how talented you are, it is education that opens doors for your talent to shine. I wanted to add a skill, professionalism to writing that most people doubted, I wanted to be an educated writer instead of a wishful writer. I had to be smart about it, talent could get me ahead but education can guarantee that I stay there and young people need to understand that. You need to get an education no matter how talented you are not just to have something to fall back on but to make sure that people take you seriously, to make sure that you don’t become an “aspiring” somebody for the rest of your life, to make sure that people notice you and trust me when you have a qualification you suddenly become visible.

I’ve met some people who call themselves writers but when I ask what they are reading they say they don’t read and I have very little patience with people like that. You cannot become a writer if you don’t read because before your a writer you’re a reader, it is reading that births and raises the writer within you so you can’t say your a writer if you are not a reader. The reader becomes the writer and the writer is always the reader and that’s the way it is, unchangeable.

So now that you know how I fell in love with words, what did you have your first love affair with? Which is the one love for you that didn’t leave or cheat, the flame that never died down? Find that love, find the passion and if you have already discovered it your one of the lucky few, nature it, love it and allow it to prosper your. Find that love and do that for the rest of your life.

Regards – Missy Sparkles
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