I write because I believe in the power of mankind's age-old conversation. Throughout centuries, people have come together to share perspectives, bare souls and piece together this complex life that we share. Whether this happens across the dinner table or across countries, we are moved by stories both refreshingly similar to and strikingly different than ours. The hidden, scared, locked-away corners of our identities are comforted and coaxed into the light by the empowering experience of hearing heart-cries that sound like our own. Our mirrors are replaced by windows when we listen to the joys, sorrows and needs of a life that is shockingly unfamiliar. The changing of times is always marked by this grand conversation, or a lack thereof.

I write because I believe in life-bringing and community-building dialogue. My life has been defined by beautiful, messy, transformative dialogue. These are the experiences that have created me: honest conversation around a fire, friendships that cross cultures, late-night conversations that remain alive when the world has gone to sleep, discussions with people that are united by respect and curiosity despite vast differences in opinion, laying on a friend’s bedroom floor and listening after asking for help in understanding a part of their identity that was beyond my comprehension and reading stories from real people experiencing systematic injustice that I had known nothing about. The mere act of conversation, of sharing stories and ideas without an agenda, breeds unfathomable love.

I write because I value my thoughts enough to share them. Far too many people are taught that their thoughts aren't important because far too many people are taught not to listen to them. Writing is a radical platform that says "my thoughts matter, and so do yours." The stories we listen to are the ones we learn to value; I write because I value myself and want to engage in a medium that embraces others.

Simply writing, let alone sharing, is brave. In a world that sets up a rigid power structure of speakers and listeners, writing is subversive. Even in a private journal that will never be seen by another human, giving voice to your opinions and emotions and experiences reinforces the profound idea that you matter. Sharing what is in your mind and on your heart tells the world, I matter. And when we listen to what others have to say, we come to the revolutionary conclusion that they matter.

Whether or not we are aware of it, there are some stories we hear and others that are kept hidden from us. Silenced voices means unheard needs, unrecognized worth and unsought justice. Writing is a way to make myself heard, as well as to invest in a platform that amplifies others' voices that are ignored.

The concept of justice as an intrinsic element of loving others is not new. However, justice and wholeness looks different every single day, and we must always be looking to what real healing, chain-loosing love looks like today. Sharing and hearing today's stories through the written word is part of that process.

I write because I love.