“I write myself into existence” [said Neesha Meminger]. She was speaking of why her protagonists are South Asian girls, but I also believe she was touching at a larger truth. I, like Neesha Meminger, like many other writers out there, write to validate myself. Because my head is a poor place to contain all my thoughts and opinions. Things get lost and muddled in there, and it’s only when I set pen to paper, fingers to keyboard, that I start to make sense. Make sense, as in make myself clear, but it’s also how I make sense of my existence, of my place in the world, of the world around me. I write to contextualize myself. And it doesn’t matter if other people read it. It shouldn’t matter if others do.