Writing saved me. As a 2020 high school graduate, I found myself at the lowest point of my life during quarantine. After dusting off my childhood love for Star Wars, I binge watched the entirety of Star Wars the Clone Wars. I quickly latched onto the character that was Ahsoka Tano and found myself relating to her in almost every way. Abandoned by those she trusted, alone in her time of need, and strong enough to survive her endeavors. She inspired to to continue to fight on and from there I began to think of my own Star Wars stories. I am currently writing two Star Wars novels (that will most likely never be published but hey a girl can hope) each with about 170 pages written. My love for writing developed quickly and I spent most of the lonely hours of quarantine in front of my laptop, in my own world. My writing quickly expanded after that and it was instantly my favorite hobby. I know write horror stories, love stories, and yes I still continue to write Star Wars stories. The part I found to be the most therapeutic about writing was writing poems. To this day, when I find myself at my saddest, I open up my laptop and let my feelings flow in artful words that I mostly keep to myself. My love for writing has not only improved my mental and emotional health but it has improved my reading ability. As a child I struggled with reading comprehension, and I still do. I remember in 5th grade, I would be pulled out of history class to take remedial reading comprehension classes. It lowered my self-esteem, and I felt less that my peers. When I got to college I had a midnight conversation with my roommate, an avid bookworm, about reading. She explained about how when she read she could create the most spectacular images in her mind based on the words from a page, and it saddened me. I couldn’t see pictures in that way. As I began to write more and more it quickly became easier to create an image in my head and craft a set of words to describe the colorless, fluid imagines in my brain. Once I did though, the words added color and edges to the photo, creating the picture I had longed to find for so long. This past summer I tried taking up reading as a pleasure, and I have read 5 books since. Which doesn’t seem like a lot, but for somebody who has struggled for years it was a monumental achievement. Thanks to writing, I have been able to better understand myself and strengthen my writing and reading capabilities. If it weren’t for writing, I don’t know if I would be where I am today, and the best part of it all, is that I keep every word I write to myself. For now.