back after a hiatus
hiatus • [hīˈādəs] • noun: a pause or gap in a sequence, series, or process.
When 2020 hit, I realized that writing was one of my biggest passions in life. Luckily, I got to delve into this hobby, and that same year, I began my Medium blog. Around the same time, I was filling out my undergraduate university applications. Since I was applying to many different programs across the country (as well as scholarships), I found myself writing quite often — whether for personal enjoyment or otherwise.
I started branching out and exploring different forms of writing: poetry, short stories, essays, articles, and then even a book. Writing was that one activity that I never got tired of, and I was fascinated by how many different forms it could take and how many ways you could string together a cluster of words to give it meaning.
When I started University, I found myself getting busier and busier and giving less and less time to my hobbies. It was to the point that I hadn’t written for enjoyment in quite a while (and no, essays written for university courses do not count as “fun”).
Early last year, ChatGPT took off, and suddenly, something shifted in me. For the first time, I thought to myself: what is the value of writing as a hobby? I was forced to address this question because upon giving any prompt to ChatGPT, I saw it spit out words in…