It all started in elementary school when I wrote a silly poem about an onion.

Why I Write — The Beginning

My mom heaped praise on me about that silly poem and posted my words on the refrigerator. The writing bug was quick to follow.

Not that I was one for poetry really. I liked stories, and more than anything, I liked to make people smile when they read my stories. It was all about getting people to feel their best. In a way, I was fulfilling my part of some cosmic pay it forward movement.

I started writing stories about people I knew. I would fulfill their every fantasy. Whether it was to be filthy rich or to fall in love, to meet their favorite celebrity or to be the most popular kid in school, I wrote crazy adventures ripe with imagination. People would even approach me to write stories for them. Being the introvert I was, this was a great way to meet people, especially in those awkward middle school years.

Then Laurie Santos came back into my life. We were good friends in second and third grade before I was transferred to a different school. Up until then, my storytelling focused on the needs of other people. She changed all that.

As my best friend, Laurie made me feel like I mattered too. We would write stories together, lovingly dubbed “scenarios”, and we would alternate who wrote each section. I tended to write whatever I thought would make her happy, still hesitant to put myself in the spotlight (though I always loved what she wrote for me!), but she opened me up to one of my life’s lesson — it was okay to write for me too.

Why I Write — The Early Middle

Ask any writer and they will tell you that the middle is the hardest part. When you think about it, the middle is usually a tough spot all around whether it’s middle school, middle age, or even being the middle child. Things can get a bit “muddled”. The middle of my writing career is filled with self-doubt and missed opportunities. What happened?

When one of my best friends passed away in high school, my priorities changed. Life was no longer about me but about my professional goals. I was going to be a doctor and if I didn’t have the power to save Jenny back then, at least I could make a difference in someone’s life in the future. That meant putting aside the writing that made me happy and putting all my energy into a medical career. After constant studying, sleepless nights, vigorous training, and personal sacrifices, I finally got there, but I burned out within a decade.

Do I regret becoming a doctor? Absolutely not. I regret that I put my passions on hold, but I never regret the lives I helped along the way. To this day, I maintain relationships with many of my patients. I will always have their well-being at heart. The problem was I forfeited my own well-being to do for others what I would not do for myself. Self-care is so very important.

Why I Write — The Late Middle

Despite appearances that I had it all — a marriage, children, a professional career — something was missing. I lost the carefree innocence that drove me back in my youth. An important part of me that brought me joy went missing. I needed my writing back.

I tried to get back in the game by entering the Medical Economics writing contest for doctors. To my surprise, I actually won an honorable mention with parts of my story published years later in 2010 and then 2013. Encouraged, I started to take on more writing, even braving a novel in my “spare time”. That meant squeezing in odd hours here and there, and as a doctor with kids, those hours were far and few between. It was a slow and grueling process.

In hopes to build momentum, I signed up for a writer’s conference to get the juices flowing but tragedy struck. My dad passed away the first night of the conference. Let’s say I wasn’t in the mindset to make the most of the situation. I went to another conference a few years later (after my dad’s passing, my writing fell into a slump) and won an award for “best hook”. Then, I went to yet a third one and met my first agent. Things were starting to turn.

Why I Write — The Neverending Story

In what can only be described as serendipity, a doctor friend sent me a link to a lecture on self-publishing. After being told to write what I know, I penned my go-to guide for Medicare (Medicare Essentials) and self-published it on Kindle. I then pitched my book to agents at the Writer’s Digest Annual Conference in New York City, and what do you know, one of the agents needed an expert to write a Medicare book! That’s how Idiot’s Guides: Medicare came to be.

It may not have been the fiction book that I always dreamed of but it was a start. I now had firsthand experience working with an agent, an editor, and a publishing house. This allowed me to grow my platform and before I knew it, I became the Medicare expert for VeryWell Health and was invited to write for MedicareResources.org. I am writing non-fiction now and getting paid for it consistently. It’s a great feeling.

With a taste of the good life, I am now following a path towards fiction writing too. Although writing is not my full-time job (I still fight the good fight for patients every day!), it is my full-time love. Writing stories lights something up inside me. It is one of the few things in life that puts me in a state of flow. In other words, it’s magical. That’s why I write and I plan to keep on writing.