The Art of Writing

By Murtaza Adamjee

I woke up one morning in a cold sweat, my heart racing, shaking from a strange and unusual dream. Come to think of it, on second thought I guess you could call it a nightmare, but a peculiar one at that; no evil, no monsters, and no enemies – just me. I sat there for a couple of minutes, recovering my breath, trying to recollect the vivid events that had just taken place.

In a sense, the dream provided an undesirable glimpse into my future. I was old, I was alone, and I had spent my entire life playing catch-up. I’d graduated from university, found a mediocre, 9-to-5 job, and wasted my entire life trying to climb an insurmountable corporate ladder; only to have it cut beneath me as the company was sold to a larger, more profitable one. After falling, I bounced around between jobs, never quite able to pick myself up. As a result, my closest relationships dissolved, and I lived out the rest of my days as a cold and bitter human being.

As I sat there trying to reassemble my puzzled thoughts, I tried to recapture my state of mind from when I was a child. It's amazing that no matter how hard or how far the fall, children are able to bounce back, patch up their wounds with nothing but a bandage, and continue along as if nothing had happened. Perhaps it is the feeling of freedom, knowing that you have only just begun to shape the landscape of your life that makes it so easy for children to adjust.

What if, as adults, it could be that simple? What if there was a way to easily patch up wounds – a sort of tool that could be used for guidance?

I walked over to my desk, pulled out a pen and a piece of paper, and started to write down my thoughts. A wave of dreams past washed over; a lifetimes worth of goals and ambitions that I had put aside for far too long.

As I continued to write, the entire process took me back in time; I saw my life flash before my eyes. I could not help but wonder why I never did the things I had initially sought out to do. We all have a very limited amount of time to leave some sort of legacy. In this regard, each life in its own right is unique and worth recording. I decided from that moment forward, I was going to record my thoughts; when you write things down, it makes them real.

Distant dreams become realistic goals, and things that could become things that should. The art of writing has the ability to change your life. All you have to do is confront your battles, and explore your dreams.

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