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Writing Was Never Part Of The Plan, Until It Was …
I never thought I'd care about writing, but life, school, and work had other ideas. Here's how I started taking writing seriously.
I used to hate writing, especially in English, since it is neither my first nor my second language. In Madagascar, where I am from, French is widely used alongside Malagasy and serves as the dominant language for government, law, and formal education. Conversely, English is mostly limited to tourism and certain international business contexts. I only started learning English seriously when I realized it was constantly required for most career paths I wanted to pursue. I therefore wasn’t really exposed to English until I graduated from high school.
Even then, English felt more like a requirement than something I wanted to learn. In class, most tasks felt monotonous, especially writing. I never understood why it mattered so much. I believed that understanding the language, being able to read, and expressing what’s on my mind were enough. I couldn’t see what more there was to it, and I remained convinced that writing, in particular, mattered far less than people claimed.
I moved to the U.S. in 2021 for my undergraduate study assuming I wouldn’t have to write many essays since I was majoring in Computer Information Systems. Little did I know that even the computer science and math classes I took required essays every one or two weeks. The shift to the U.S. education system was a nightmare, not only were there weekly writing assignments, but most classes also required midterm and end-of-semester essays.
I started asking myself whether Americans were introduced to this much writing as early as high school, and how comfortable they were with it. Was it easy for them? Why did every class rely so much on writing? Was it really that important? I even had friends who said they would rather write multiple essays than solve math problems; something that sounded completely abnormal from my point of view.
It wasn’t until later in my life, when I had to apply for jobs, master’s programs, and even Y Combinator, that I realized that constantly writing about myself - my ideas, interests, experiences, and goals - actually helped make my thoughts clearer. The more I practiced, the more my brain searched for the right words, and the more fluent I felt in expressing myself. That’s why I decided to write more often, exercising my mind and improving my communication skills.
Unnecessary comments, but if I ever lose my memory in the future, reading these will probably help too.
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