Open Essays is an uncensored space for reading and writing your own societally relevant essays. The characteristics of the essays, I hope, are thoughtful, articulate and impactful.

My reason for starting Open Essays primarily came from a specific instance in college. I wrote a pretty controversial and blunt essay about White guilt, which you can read on this blog, and I wanted to publish it in the university student newspaper. But I realized that that this particular student newspaper had an infamous reputation for intentional heavy editing that often distorted the author’s original message. Recognizing that my 3-page essay would definitely get drastically shortened and edited to the point that it may do harm to the anti-racist efforts on campus, I decided not to submit the essay for publication. At this point, I got the inspiration to start my own student newspaper on campus called ‘Open Essays’ that would publish meaningful, articulate essays without censorship or editing/distorting. But I did not want to add a third newspaper to the campus and waste paper, and so what ultimately resulted is what you see now- an online blog with the same purpose but with an infinitely wider audience.

In general, my motivations for starting and running Open Essays are:

  1. To encourage people (especially young adults) to learn to organize their thoughts and write more articulately, cogently and powerfully
  2. To encourage people to write openly and passionately while being ever so thoughtful, respectful and cognizant of the effect of one’s writings on other people
  3. To rebel against censorship and political correctness (but not against derogatory epithets)

I hope that Open Essays inspires a new generation and community of compassionate activists, intuitive thinkers and powerful communicators.

Come read and share your own open essays!

In perfect love and perfect trust,
Pattern Weaver