Escape.

8 billion people on this Earth - and every single one of them has their own idea of an “escape”. The word alone has so many meanings that could vary depending on who you asked, a question like this goes way deeper than you think.

An escape for someone could be going to the beach after a hard day, listening to music with your headphones on and “disconnecting” from the world, sports, art, drawing, singing, dancing… The list goes on and on with endless possibilities.

Having something like this helps us in many ways - sometimes we just need time for ourselves. Whether it’s after a dreadful day, after hanging out and socializing with others, getting into an argument, or even just “rotting” at home, having a chance to actually escape from the horrid reality that we live in and that cause us nothing but stress, anxiety, sadness and other negative emotions, helps millions - if not billions - of people.

Just like every other person, I have my own personal things that help me take my mind off of what's going on around me. My escapes branch into different forms of art: painting, doodling, writing, reading. I don't personally enjoy active activities unless it's walking while listening to a good playlist, much preferring more chilled out stuff.

Recently, I've gotten more and more into books and writing. The whole concept of reading dystopian or fantasy love stories with hundreds, if not thousands of pages in multiple books of a series of world building blows my mind. People are so talented, and every time I reopen my current book, I cannot physically comprehend how a person just like me and you wrote this absolute masterpiece.

Sitting late into the night, book in lap, nose deep in the 385th page with 300 more to go, music playing softly from my speaker on my desk while snacking on some random bites of food I grabbed from the kitchen an hour ago is peak girlhood for me.

Absolutely everything about book writing fascinates me - plots, character and world building, relationships, the yearning and pining, the love. Everything.

In the future I hope I get the chance to study something in this area, even if it's a measly hobby and never grows into anything more. I've liked writing small stories with made up characters since I was about 12, and have loved books since my very first series I read at 7 - the Harry Potter franchise.

Maybe that was when my love for fantasy sparked, and the spark only lit back up this year thanks to my new favourite series - The Empyrean series by Rebecca Yarros.

I also feel like with writing your own stuff you can pour so much of your soul into it - sure, stuff can be exaggerated and made up, but there's still fragments of you there, and maybe, that's the thing that piques my interest the most.

I feel blessed to have the creativity to write my own stuff and share it with friends, even if it's not the best thing on planet Earth. Everyone learns through trial and error, as will I. And I'm also forever grateful for every single talented author out there, because maybe without them I wouldn't have even thought about this, or had the courage to even start writing and following my passion.