By: Isma Hadiatmaja
“You will die -maybe not today, but later, you eventually will- but if you write, your soul will last forever.”
If we put it into metaphors, motivation to do something is like a motorcycle that needs a starter to run the engine; the quote above works as that engine, the energy that ignites my motivation to write. As human we probably has already got the idea that we aren’t mean to live forever, that we’re gonna die and this world is temporary anyway, we will be no more than bones buried inside the grave after we dead. I’m sure we don’t fancy the idea of being left and forgotten from people’s memories. We’d like to live to be remembered, to be slipped in people’s mind, stay in their mind’s eyes. And the only thing that keeps us breathing over our dead bodies, is writing.
Regarding to memories and remembrance encourages me to write as habits. in any form. Quotes, ideas, opinions, or in this social media era, in a form of captions or tweets, anything, I try to spawn my mind into scripts in order to have everlasting records about my existence. Writing frees my mind, that will somehow be the tool to put my thoughts into more structured well-formed mind, so it will, in the end, shape me into better person.
And of course it gives us this sense of joy when our writings are read, rephrased, rewritten, spread, appreciated. Those kinds of acknowledgement may give us endorphin and serotonin that gives us happy and addicted. To trigger another thought. And thar cycle goes on, like a wheel of thoughts, move our hands to write more and more.
So write. Writing becomes easier when you turn it into habit. And habits happened when we start. Write. Because ideas are like fire. Your writing kindles that fire that shines, burns, warms, and lightens up this world.
And keeps your soul alive.