What is something you disliked in the past, but now like?

     What is something you disliked in the past, but now like?

By: Thomas Southey

        Something that I used to hate but now like is writing. I used to think of it as a waste of my time. I did not see much use for it aside from school work. I also didn't like the way it was taught, especially with intricate parts about grammar and all these little things that matter in your writing to make it perfect. I think it was mainly me just being a kid that influenced this just wanting to have fun with the work. During the Covid-19 pandemic, I was forced to spend more time inside and leave myself on my computer for 2-4x my usual amount. Since we were all quarantined and inside it made it very easy to want to develop a new skill or hobby. In my downtime, I would think of little things I see every day that would make an interesting story. I started to do this more and more and I found that I kind of liked creating my little world surrounding one topic or thing that I could just share with people if I wanted.

    When I was a kid I developed a severe distaste of writing that lasted for five years or so. The reason for this dislike was mainly due to how the subject was taught. I just could not stand to sit there for hundreds of classes going over things like grammar, punctuation, writing skills, the list goes on. I still hold some of these grudges, but over time I developed a liking for writing. I would find myself writing the bare minimum of 4-5 sentences that were normally vague descriptions and trying to expand and use bigger words to fit the criteria. Now wanting to go into several paragraphs of detail as to what I think and why I think certain things. I found writing (especially typing) is a very good conduit to transfer what I'm feeling about certain things onto a paper that could be as simple as the bark on a tree to a controversial opinion.

    During the Covid-19 pandemic, we were all quarantined and there wasn't very much to do. This forced us to live in our minds for months. I started to end up playing more video games, mainly to meet new people and find something new to talk about every day with people instead of the monotone "How was your day?"... "Fine". Instead, I would be able to talk about anything from helping new players learn the game or teach strategy or I could share my ideas about balancing or reworking characters or items, etc that would better fit the game.

    However, you're probably thinking about how what I just said relates to writing. Well, there are a few ways to communicate your ideas with other people who have a similar fondness for games. There is usually an in-game sort of voice chat or text chat depending on the game but this is usually not for helping others learn. It is more to make jokes, have fun, or tell someone what to do next. However, there is always some sort of forum where you could discuss with people via threads and posts and help them out.

I liked participating in some forums because not only were the forums active, having thousands active at a time, but you could do anything from asking questions to making guides or messing around and trying to meet new people in the game. I was able to make 15 + very popular posts, popular for me being 2000+ views and 100 comments or more, that were all good quality, taking me hours to make using data, quotes, consensus, etc. on how and why things should be changed or why they should stay or asking/answering questions. A normal post may get ~fifty to one hundred views.

I found these forums super helpful for me because I normally don't talk about games that I play. Or never feel comfortable talking about games I play with my friends in real life because I may feel embarrassed or weirded out when I am passionate about something that the person I am talking to it doesn’t care about. These ways of me being able to put my ideas out there and see change and agreement and the ability to be passionate about something allowed me to open my eyes to how writing isn't just a thing you do for school it is something that is fun and creates an environment to discuss with 1000's if not 10,000 + people. 

    Another reason why I started to like writing is that it allowed me to be free of my fears or embarrassment of a topic like I was talking about earlier. I could easily write down things that I don't necessarily want to share with others. It allows me to almost speak to the paper, it will listen to every word I type and this helps me process or expand on an idea with no anxieties. For example, let's say  I found something like a YouTube video that discusses something that I find cool that may be a niche or out of the norm topic to others. If I was to go around and tell people about it they wouldn't understand why I liked it and not be able to share our thoughts about it.

In total, the reason why I have hated writing is because of how my mind internalizes it, I held a grudge against it for no valid reason. I saw it only as something for work and not something that can be fun or provide interest. I felt like it wasn't fun to deal with all these grammar rules that you must follow to be perfect. I ended up finding interest in this space solely because it allowed me to circumvent my anxieties about a topic and I could put it into something I was comfortable with; writing. Any form or embarrassment was cast aside, every idea you write you can change and tweak it as much as you want until it fits your needs. And at the end of the day, the paper will allow you to say whatever you want, listening to every letter and word typed. It is the perfect way to think, learn, and help yourself become less fearful about a certain topic.