One of the journeys that any of our Untitled Chapters writers have in common is their Writing Journey. Safiya Al Nuaimi shares her own journey for our April theme

I don’t know how to confess this to your team, team Untitled Chapters, but once upon a time, I hated writing. I remember whenever our teacher would go, “Grab your writing notebooks, we’re going to write,” I would get so mad. That changed.

I stumbled upon Untitled Chapters and witnessed the massive amount of Emirati writers submitting their work. I saw everyone’s writing dreams come true because there was finally a blog that welcomed them; that mesmerized me. I was automatically pushed by the writers’ passion to attempt to write to express myself rather than write to finish up an assignment. That experience was certainly new to me, although I did write in high school. So what was new to me? For the first time ever, I wrote to send a message, to find people to relate to, to share my ideas, and to engage with new people throughout my writings. Oh what a wonderful world I have come across. Oh what a bunch of talented writers I have met. What is this fascinating world? How come I just knew about it?

The journey started with people’s drive and motivation; it moved me into starting my own path. Everything changed along the way because of writing. First, I wrote one post. Then, I owned two blogs. I was unstoppable; I wrote poems, short stories, and I put myself basically in every field and every genre. Next thing I know, people started calling me a writer. Oh how huge that title seemed. I felt like I was finally an important person. People started coming up to me asking me for tips on how to write and improve their pieces. I never felt more significant in my entire life.

I started reading more. I started writing down the new vocabulary I’ve learned. I’ve had writers and bloggers backing me up every time I felt that what I wrote wasn’t good enough. I’ve had supporters on this road and I grew day by day. I compare my writing style from school till this very day and I am intrigued by how many miles I’ve crossed. I even remember my English writing professor from last term telling me, “Safiya, I’m going to have to put your report on SafeAssign to check for plagiarism” and instead of freaking out, I was smiling as if I was delivered some good news. What was translated to my head was, “Safiya, your work was too good that I think you might have taken someone else’s work” and I was beyond delighted. I was looking forward to hear from her, to hear that what I wrote was, on the contrary, free from plagiarism.

I feel like I am a part of something big because every time a writer has a new piece to share, we all go ahead and read it. We all support one another and the support is just indescribable. Every day a new writer emerges. Every day a new post is being published. I’m impressed and quite glad that I took a step to discover this world. I’m merely on the very beginning of this journey and who knows what the future holds for me.

Author: Safiya Al Nuaimi