This might be the most meta article I have written for Hopkins Insider so far. This is all about how I have grown as a person through writing.
My journey with writing has been an interesting one. As a kid, I was always the one who wrote loads of stories. In high school, I loved writing explainer blogs that broke down complex economics concepts into something simple and intuitive. But I was never one to do reflective writing. There is a big difference between telling a story and telling your story. While writing fictional stories or giving narrative to academic topics was my forte, writing about myself and my experiences never were.
I avoided every opportunity to write about myself. In fact, the first time I faced a situation where I was absolutely required to write about myself was my college application essays. Then too, I kept over-engineering them and changing topics. I was scared of feedback, so I made sure not to show anyone my essays before I submitted them. Somehow, I still got in. But I must say that college was the first time I overcame this and became super comfortable with writing about myself and my experiences.
Let me tell you how.
I am a computer science and economics double major, so I am naturally very technically inclined. I never thought that writing would be a big focus area for me in college. But that could not be further from the truth. One of the first classes I took at Hopkins was “Professional Writing and Communication,” which was writing for engineering majors. The class was a real eye-opener for me. Through writing workshops, in-class activities and more fun than I initially imagined having, I recall workshopping our essays in class but also singing a little song as a group with our professor right before all presentations. I learnt to really just let myself free write. Free writing is when you put pen to paper and scribble words away like nobody will ever read them (or in my case typing vigorously at 100 words per minute—now that is something that is a natural byproduct of being a computer science major).
The next (and probably one of the biggest things) that helped me improve my reflective writing is Hopkins Insider! I started writing here in my first-year spring semester at Hopkins; through many, many articles, I think I’m now at the level where I feel comfortable sharing snippets of my life with you all. Now, I always look forward to time that I chalk up in my calendar just to free write these blog posts. This is what my blog writing process is like. First, I spend a good thirty minutes scrolling through my camera roll and calendar (two places where I can find my whole life) to brainstorm what to write about. Then as I mentioned earlier, I just free write. To free write, I have to forget that anyone will ever read these and just write. Later, my editor gives me feedback, and I think I have genuinely improved as a result.
Now, writing is a big part of my academic and non-academic life. In academic research, I have recently started writing papers. And outside of academics, I use writing as a way to capture my journey so far and reflect on what’s next. While I may not be a writing seminars major, writing has a special place for even the engineer in me. I hope to keep writing and sharing my story.
P.S. While writing this blog post, I decided to reread my first Hopkins Insider post here. Safe to say, both my writing and I have come a long way, but I wouldn’t change a single thing about this journey.
