I wanted to share a piece I wrote for my college magazine:
A Father’s Death Leads to a Healing Mother-Son Road Trip Across Croatia
As entrepreneurs and marketers, we often write with brutal efficiency. Get to the point. Be inspiring. Be useful. Be clear.
Whether for our sales page or social media posts, we’re taught to capture attention and provide value. This usually means starting with the key point, and supporting that with attention-grabbing stories, videos and images.
But, when reflecting on our lives, sometimes it’s good to write with no destination in mind.
Sometimes, it’s okay not to have “a takeaway,” a “what this means…” or “why this matters.”
In fact, it’s probably better not to. Then, an event’s meaning, our real feelings – can emerge, out of the corner of our eye.
That’s how I felt when writing about the road trip I took with my mom this summer. I just wanted to write honestly about the experience – why was Mom always on her phone and kind of grumpy? Only through chronicling our travels did I realize she was the one helping me heal.
This is my long-winded way of encouraging us to write honestly and openly about our experiences – whether in public or private – with nothing to prove, no one to convince, and no point to make.
That open, undetermined space may be where we get the most illumination.
