Why Do I Write?

I'm doing my homework, good little student that I am, and suddenly after seven pages of reading the personal essay book, I have to stop and answer the question:  Why Do I Write?  Oh, this is not something I really wanted to get into.  You would think that because I'm a former English teacher, I would LOVE to write - wrong.  It was actually my least favorite part of teaching the subject; mainly because I wasn't very good at teaching GOOD writers.  (I'm really dreading having to comment on the other students' writing in this USU class.  I feel like such a fraud.  Can I just correct their grammar?)  I was actually very good at teaching kids who had never put a word on paper to learn how to do it. 

I know the reason I write now is different than the reason when I started this blog in 2007.  Initially, I was in the midst of having to accept some hard truths about myself and my health, and I used writing to help me sort out, accept and make sense.  I explored faith and the role it played in my life.

In 2008, I stopped writing.  I posted exactly two times about nothing;  It's a wonder my audience stayed with me.  I think if I had written, it would have helped me come to grips with new responsibilities and the re-ordering of my extended family's life.  I wish I could truthfully say I sorted through my mother's death, but that would take 3 more years.  I did come to a peace about my brother's death, and I spent a lot of time in 2008 accepting my father's dementia and the horror of relocating him against his will, and closing down their lives  Writing would have helped me, but I was too outwardly focused to use it.

In 2009, I found the passion again when we decided to cut ourselves adrift from the lives we had led for 20 years and take off adventuring.  No, we aren't climbing mountains or taking to the sea in a small boat, but we are opening ourselves to new places, new communities, new people.  Writing about the process of making this happen gave me the feeling I had something interesting to say.  I guess that says why I write in one sentence:  The feeling I have something interesting to say.

In 2010, 2011, and up to the present, I found my voice.  Yes, my entree to my audience is ostensively a travelogue, but I get the most responses from my readers when I write on a more personal level or when I muse and comment about people I've met - both individually and as as groups.  Another reason I've chosen this form is I'm acutely aware that many people read my stuff who can't (or won't) travel, but love to hear the word descriptions and see the pix.
I have to admit that while I do write for myself - a life chronicle, I'm flattered that I have an audience.