Why I do What I Do

So I'm a writer. There are a lot of us on planet Earth. And there is always that one question people like to ask. "Why do you write?" Well, I've answered this so many times and honestly the answer changes. It has to do with what is going on in life when they ask. Am I down in the dumps? Am I perfectly happy? Do I have activities that give me thrills? I've answered, "Because God's given me a gift", "It's my passion", "I can't live without it", "It's apart of me" and so on. I found that there is always one common theme. Each answer has to do with a connection. That there is something in writing that is stuck in my heart. That there is a need to do it, a duty if you will. And now I've come up with my new answer:

Writing is a release. For me, writing is primarily a way of expressing myself. It is the main way I can collect my emotions and turn them into something. It is how I let them free. Inside I can't really see them clearly, so by putting them down in ink, I can see and process them. Sometimes I don't know what I feel until its written boldly before me. I have a hard time letting the emotions out and it creates pain. But when I write them out, the tension is gone.

So that is why I do what I do.