The brain is made up of multiple parts. Some people are more creative and imaginative, meaning that they use the right side of the brain. Whereas some people are more logical and think things through, meaning they use the left side of the brain.

I’m more right-brained, and drawing is like an escape from reality for me. It lets me express any form of emotion I might be having, allowing my mind to drift as my hand is sat down on the paper, a pen in hand.

When I’m drawing, I’m also listening to music. It’s a way for me to get my thoughts and mind onto a piece of paper and relieves all of the worry and stress that has been built up in the back of my mind from the social interactions and schoolwork that I had been doing throughout the day. 

I like to draw in pen a lot of the time because the pens allow me to keep on drawing with the pen sliding alongside the paper without picking it up at all. The drawings I have made have sometimes even scared other people because of how in detail I will go with them.

My notebook —full of all of my drawings —is like a preview of what you would see if you were to open up my mind. These little drawings within the thousands of papers are a key into my head, one that very few have been let into. 

My drawings can represent the trauma that others have put me through or the joy and relief that some have thankfully been there for me to receive. The artwork which was shown to me by my kindergarten teacher has now been a coping mechanism for me and I wish others would understand that. 

Taking away my pen from my notebook is like taking away the brain to a body. A body without a brain cannot function, just like me without my pen. My pen and paper take me to my own little world within. Without this, I am nothing but a body with no brain. 

This world that I have discovered holds many things the human brain cannot comprehend. In this portion of my mind, I think of the unthinkable, I draw what I see when I am in this state. I let my mind drift and my hand move along the paper. I go into my own little world and shut everything else out. 

I will often do this at school so I can give myself an escape from this tragic reality. I allow myself to finally take a deep breath and breathe. Now all I can hear are the mumbling voices in the background of my fellow classmates talking about the latest gossip. 

I simply just don’t care what they have to say about who’s dating who, or when the next sports event is going to be. I just don’t care about those types of things. Instead, it’s just me and my pen. The pen holds the key to my notebook, the key to my mind, the key to everything that I have to offer —without it —I’m nothing but a body with no brain.