hi. i’m alex.

so, it turns out it’s like really hard to write about yourself. but let’s give it a go, shall we?

i’m a 20 year old guy who lives in the lake district, although you couldn’t tell as apparently i sound really posh.

i started writing as my friend jess said on the bus back from uni that my love life was comparable to a young taylor swift. of course, i can’t sing to save my life (i left that firmly behind in year 5 choir), and can only relate to her skills as a feline enthusiast with great taste in names.

but one thing i’ve always done is write down my thoughts.

they say a girls notes app is full of hidden treasures, but believe it or not some of us boys do in fact use it too. growing up, i had always felt the odd one out. i was the nerdy fat kid at school, i struggled to make friends, and just felt a bit of a loner. as i didn’t really have anyone to talk about my feelings with (and was outright scared of admitting i was struggling), i instead turned to putting them in my notes app.

as i grew older, these thoughts tended to turn into long rambling essays, often focusing on the girl i was crushing on at the time. but in the months leading up to me turning towards writing poetry, things had been particularly rough. i was stressed with starting uni, a relationship that seemed like it was a fairytale had ended up turning into a nightmare, my family life was a bit of a mess, and so my mental health ended up on the floor.

it wasn’t slay to say the least.

truth be told, it hadn’t been my first dabble into writing. with my first ex, i was slightly disappointed with the valentines present i gave her, so ended up thinking it’d be cute to write her a book of poems about how i felt about her. we broke up before i gave it to her, but she’s still kept it to this day.

it got to the point earlier this year where my therapist was telling me i needed to jot down my thoughts rather than keeping them in. i don’t know how it happened, but between that and the conversation on the bus later that day, i got home and wrote a poem about cuddles. some friends said it was good, and it lead to the crazy idea that became “the thoughts i never said“.

and that’s how i became a poet.