All personal writing is selfish

No, seriously.

Graphic by Melissa Liu, Managing Print & Design Editor

Suhani Mahajan, Staff Writer

You’ve already read the title, so I’ll start by saying yes, this also counts and that this means yes, I admit to this being an entirely selfish article written for ME. That does not negate the value of what I’m trying to explain, though. In fact, my selfish reason for writing today is to tell you why we’re all selfish when it comes to personal writing. And I promise this is a judgment-free zone. Now, get ready to become aware of the “purpose of writing” in a way you’ve never imagined.

Actually, I’ll help ease you into this; let’s start with something obviously selfish, something that most of my readers here should be able to relate to: college essays. Honestly, could there be a more selfish reason for writing? I can’t think of any. Think about it - you do not write a personal essay and send it to a college for the college. No, you’re trying to wow your admissions officer’s socks off so that they’ll accept you to the campus (hopefully, with a good financial aid package, too).

Forget college essays - all personal essays are written with selfish intent. Me. You. Your teachers. That one neighbor of yours who’s always blasting EDM at 1 a.m. We all write about our thoughts, our feelings, our opinions. And on the rare occasion that we are not the central focus of our writing, we claim that our writing is for “a greater cause” to “change the world”. In that case, your writing is selfish because it depicts a world which you find ideal- it does not account for the people whose views are opposite to yours.

You don’t write personal essays? How about analytical ones? You know, the ones you write (or once wrote) in each of your ELA classes. Granted, you may not register the true tragedy that is “The Fault In Our Stars”, or really seriously contemplate why the color of the conch shell in “The Lord of The Flies” is so important, but the essays you write (or wrote) were still the product of a selfish act. How so? Well, in class, what was the one thing you were writing for? To grow as a reader and a writer, yes- but how is that measured? What is your goal at the end of an ELA class? To pass, of course. And how does one pass an ELA class? With good grades. (If anyone knows of any other ways of passing, please alert me immediately- I may need some help in the years to come.) And tell me, how would you get good grades? By writing your assigned essays. So, my dear reader and writer, you write for yourself- for the grade, which you need. Again, I show you how your writing, no matter how objective and not-for-you it may seem, is obnoxiously selfish in nature.

As for those of us who consider ourselves to be “lowkey” writers, just “a poem here and there” writers, our writing is also selfish. All the little bursts of words that bloom from our imaginations that we organize into rhymes, lines, and stanzas, are inherently selfish. We write about the stars we want to pluck from the night sky or the ocean waves we tell ourselves we’ll conquer one day, or the sweetness of spring, or the emptiness following heartbreak. We all write for ourselves because we’ve figured out that the world is a mess; only by composing artworks built of words do we find clarity in the chaos.

In the end, a writer is an individual ‘I’ writing to the mass of us. A writer writes to make sense of his world, to organize her thoughts, to soothe their soul. A writer writes for herself - always. That’s not bad, though. It just is. After all, who said selfish writing is bad? Certainly not me. Personal essays, poetry, prose, plays, stories, letters- these selfish pieces of art become meaningful when the people of the world recognize a little part of themselves in the writing, or empathize with the writer. Selfish writing connects us all, for we are all selfish.

Go forth, my selfish writers. Write. And as you write, remember that you write for yourself and that it is absolutely acceptable to do so. 

Write, my selfish writers. Write for yourself, and watch as the selfish world melts within your words in the most breathtaking ways. 

Write, my selfish writers. Be proud that you write selfishly, rather than selflessly, for you will undoubtedly be healing at least one person in this world - yourself. 

Write, my selfish writers. Write and be free in your own thoughts and beliefs and the knowledge that your words are yours, for you. 

Happy writing, my selfish writers.

With love, 

A fellow selfish writer.