As a writer, my biggest coping mechanism has always been writing and storytelling. I still remember the first time my dad bought me a notebook because I told him that I wanted to start writing journals. I had probably seen it in a movie and thought it was really cool. I started with a classic ‘Dear Diary…’ and rambled about how my days went, the school bullying and my fear of absolutely everything.

For someone who was not conditioned to share and express, this journal became my best friend. It knew all my secrets. It knew about my fears and it listened to me talking about them. It became my go-to for every emotion – anger, betrayal, loneliness, sadness, failure and also happiness, excitement, infatuation – everything!

I received no judgments and somewhere I knew that it was what I needed – to be able to express with no consequences of receiving judgments. This lifeless diary had given me more confidence and healing than any other living and breathing human being. 

Soon, but not unnoticeably, “writing about my feelings” turned into storytelling. I learned that everything that happens in our life is a storyline and we are all characters.

I started giving a twist to my real-life stories to make it more interesting. For instance, my evil cousin became the ghost haunting the house I live in and my school bullies became the gatekeepers of the house making sure I could not run away.  Using these metaphorical representations to deliver stories about my life somewhat made me feel better. I was disguising the truth to deliver a story – and it made me feel heard! As I grew up, I started delivering my truth – as it was, no metaphors, no disguise. And that made me feel free. 

You may want to read: MONSTER UNDER MY BED AND THE MONSTER IN MY HEAD – MY DIARY OF INSOMNIA

Writing and storytelling has not only helped me battle my demons but also enabled me to heal the wounds of battle. 

In our lives, we all have our own demons. We all have our ghosts and gatekeepers. And they all affect us differently. Nobody has the same story – and nobody can tell your story better than you can.

You don’t have to be a writer to write.

You don’t have to be an artist to make art.

You don’t have to be a musician to make music.

You just have to have the heart! You just have to have a story. And we all have stories. We are a walking novel or an album or a movie – that just has not been released yet. We all go through life, battling our pain, our heartbreaks and we often don’t know how to deal with them. 

We read books, we watch movies, we listen to songs – and somewhere we relate to them and/or find inspirations.

Do you know why?

Because the stories portrayed through any form of art comes from the roots of either real stories and real emotions or fantasies and motivations. Both – the result of our real-life experiences. When we are in love, we relate to romantic love songs, when we have a breakup, suddenly all breakup songs become relatable.

Imagine how a child living in slums would feel after watching Slumdog Millionaire. Imagine how a physically weak, bullied teenage boy would feel after watching Captain America.

Imagine how a little girl who loves to sing would feel while watching a Taylor Swift or Ariana Grande’s concert. All our fantasies, our emotions, our experiences and our problems can be expressed through art and if they were not, we would not have any movies or songs or books or any form of art. 

Art can change the world. Art can heal. Art can inspire. Art is the loudest form of expression. ART – in any form. And you can make art! Because you have a real life experience that matters. You have a voice that needs to be heard. You have a heart that needs to be healed.

So, go ahead –Tell your story! Tell your tale!

Let the world listen! You never know how many lives you might be impacting. 

Pratiksha Rajopadhyaya