Within the Lines

I had never questioned my interest in writing. Until now, I hadn’t even realized that I don’t write for the story, but for the individual words themselves. You can recount the same story, but with different words it becomes something entirely new. Words have the power to make beautiful things seem ugly and ugly things seem beautiful. Your turn of phrase, sentence structure, tonality, and expressions are the story itself and I find that powerful. Because in everything you say, how you say it shapes how it’s received. Perhaps, that’s why I spend so much of my time watching real-life courtroom proceedings. Lawyers can’t refute evidence, but both the prosecution and defense still work to convince you of a different narrative. Sometimes, the facts themselves begin to fade, and it becomes a war of who can build a more compelling showcase of words. It makes me wonder how often my own perspective has been misaligned with someone else’s - just because of how I read into their words, or how they read into mine. We don’t always remember the events. We remember the way they were described. We remember how they felt. Our minds are made up of what others say, what we recall, and what we’re too afraid to admit out loud. Words, and the absence of them, tend to stick. Even when something is forgiven, it doesn’t always disappear. People remember what you did or didn’t say. That’s why I try to choose my words carefully. I operate with the belief that if I say something, I gotta mean it. That’s the interesting part of words. They set expectations and build reputations. If your words consistently lack action or follow-through, you lose listeners. Worse, your words feel like a kind of betrayal, perceived in a negative light regardless of the intention. And once that trust is gone, it becomes difficult to be earned back. Which is unfortunate because words are your superpower.

At least I think so. No wonder it’s my love language haha.

- With Love, Fiza Usman