Why Do I Write?

In my senior year and even in my freshman year of college, one question I heard as frequently as "What college are you going to?" or "What's your major?" is "Why did you choose writing?"
When picking my major, I didn't factor in how easy it would be for me to find a job in the field I chose as much as I based my decision on what I loved. But why writing? What is it about writing that sparked a flame inside me to make me want to dedicate the rest of my life pursuing it?
It's not a short and sweet answer. In fact I could write an entire novel about why I'm passionate about writing.
The art of writing has always fascinated me.
For me, having the ability to take something you see in the world or something that is completely derived from your head is a great talent. It's one thing to see something and appreciate its beauty and place in the world. It's another to take a pen to paper or your fingers to a keyboard and use words guided by the rules of grammer to recreate that beauty.
Sure, in a technical sense, writng is correct speeling, punctuation, grammer and the overall conveyance of an idea. But it's the way you utilize those things to make a reader feel the words, that I love most.
It's amazing how an idea from someone's head or an experience can be manipulated into words and sentences on paper in a way that makes someone feel happy or sad. They're just letters and punctuation. Yet, it's those that create new worlds and evoke the reader to feel along with the character.
In writing, you can create characters that a reader can relate to and find a piece of themself. It's mind blowing, how just an imaginary human, or place, or whatever can make a reader feel as if it really exists.
J.K Rowling is one of my literary heroes, simply because she took an idea she got on a train and turned it into the beautiful world of Harry Potter. This world she created kept readers hooked for seven whole books. And I'll admit, those words about a boy wizard and his struggle against evil made me feel a apart of his triumphs and cry with him during his grief. It's this ability of the author that drew me to the field.
Some of the greatest icons like Huck Finn, Gatsby, or Lily Barth are completly made up from somebody's mind, but that doesn't stop us from feeling what they feel and becoming in invested in their worlds.
I've never learned magic in a huge castle or faked my own death to escape my dad. But I feel as if I have because Rowling and Twain gave me that ability when they manipulated letters and words into a piece that became important to me and into characters that trusted me with their story.
Capturing the beauty of life in words and creating characters that help us understand that beauty is why I write. Having the ability to take a piece of myself and create an entire world that will hook a reader from page one is why I write.
Writing isn't a craft to me. It's a passion. And no matter what happens, I'll always have those characters and words helping me understand the world around me.
I can only hope that one day I'll be able to do the same.