How it Started
I remember being in first grade and really struggling with learning how to read. In fact, I was struggling so much that during reading time, I was taken to a different classroom with two of my peers where we received extra help with our learning. Every week we got to choose a book that came with a tape recording to take home and practice reading. Then, we would return to that classroom and read the book out loud to our teacher. I strongly believe this is where my love of reading began, and I soon had a higher reading level than the majority of my classmates. Even though I had such a hard time learning, I loved reading from the very beginning, and this eventually transitioned into my love for writing.
I think I’ve always had a super active imagination. When I was seven, my teacher would ask us to write a story in our composition notebooks, and we would then type it on the computer while making small edits. I, on the other hand, would write one story on paper and then write a completely different story on the computer. I remember always being so excited to share whatever story I had next because it was though the ideas never stopped. I think I even knew then that I wanted to grow up and become an author.
I took my first creative writing class in the seventh grade, and it is where I finished my first “book”. I use the term “book” lightly here because it wasn’t very long - maybe a novella at best. It was called Haiku, and no, not based on the form of poetry. Haiku was the name of the lead female character who lived in this sci-fi/fantasy-type forest, raised by wild animals. My main character, a boy, and his people were wanting to find settlement on this land, and he found Haiku and not only fell in love with her, but also the forest. They ended up teaming up and stopping the people trying to destroy the forest. I remember being so excited to have finished this story, and, to my own personal and not-at-all egotistical opinion, was very well-written for a 12 year old.
From there, I took as many creative writing classes as I could throughout my education. My peers in my eighth grade creative writing class were always excited to hear my work read out loud, and I still remember one of them saying “oh, this one is my favorite!” when I got ready to continue reading aloud another book I was working on. My eleventh grade creative writing teacher shared an excerpt from a story I wrote with the rest of the class because he loved the plot twist I had written. One of my high school English teachers had also introduced a poetry contest where I had two poems published with other high school students across the country.
My junior and senior year of high school was when I really started to branch out with my writing. Writing websites were starting to become more popular, and I began sharing my work online for strangers to read on a website (that sadly no longer exists) called figment.com. This was my first time ever receiving feedback from people I didn’t know and they were actually enjoying my stories.
It was my freshman and sophomore year of college, though, where I really found some momentum with my writing. Once Figment had shutdown, I turned towards Wattpad. I had just started getting into the TV show Supernatural at the time and decided to start my own fanfiction for it. I surprisingly found great success with it on Wattpad, and quickly amassed thousands of readers who loved and hated what I wrote. Wattpad even recognized it as an official fanfiction on their site. I also received so many comments and DM’s asking how I became such a great writer, completely inflating my already large writing ego. Knowing that people actually enjoyed my writing only pushed me to write more and by the end of my sophomore year, I had written an entire fanfiction trilogy dedicated to Supernatural. To this day, I consider this one of my greatest writing achievements.
Now that I’m 26 and working with high school students myself, I find myself constantly looking back and reflecting on why I started writing in the first place, and where that love came from. Writing has always been such a safe space for me to express myself, and I had so many writer friends growing up. This past school year, I decided to start up a creative writing club for my students. It became my goal to create that same safe space for my students to express themselves in a way they might not be used to, and challenge them to think creatively when the world around them might not be treating them so kindly. I’ve watched students who would not normally interact with each other grow strong friendships and discover their own love for writing. While having thousands of people read my work on Wattpad felt amazing, I don’t think anything will ever beat connecting these students together and watching them grow as young writers. I will get into the most recent years of my writing career in a later post, but these students and this club have become a huge inspiration for me, and I’m excited to see how it grows going into the next school year.
By now you are probably wondering if there is a point to all of this, or if I am just sitting here rambling about my childhood. On one hand, I don’t really have a point, other than that I wanted to share my writing journey with you - I mean, there’s a reason why this section is called “Ramblings”. On the other hand, I do feel it is important to share where someone started, and to reflect on why you fell in love with something to begin with. I’ve always been jealous of the artists who paint and draw, or create any form of visual art piece, because it’s not only easier to share with the world, but to also see the progress they have made over the years. This is why I have been thinking of starting this blog for so long - I want to be able to share my work with the people I know and love, and I want to be able to document my progress as I continue to grow as a writer.
Everyone has to start somewhere, no matter what it might be. You can’t just become something overnight, no matter how passionate you are. Over the years, I have really learned that you have to work for it and continue practicing until you reach a point where you can sit back and think, “Wow, I really made it.” I don’t necessarily believe I’m at that point yet, but I like to believe that I’m getting closer to it every day.
To end this, though, I want to thank you, the reader, for coming along this journey with me. I’m definitely still discovering who I am and what kind of writer I want to be, but I am so excited to share my work with you. With that, I will leave you with a quote that stuck with me all throughout high school, and I’ll see you in the next post :)
“Writers see the world differently. Every voice we hear, every face we see, every hand we touch could become story fabric.”
