I’ve been a writer all my life. I remember being young, eight years old maybe, sitting at my parents desktop computer and typing away on Microsoft word. I would write children’s books: about a cat named Onyx, about a pink flamingo. I would love to make up stories on my own. I always felt so mature and sophisticated, and I loved feeling so accomplished when I would finish a story. They were short, only around ten pages each, and I would often read them aloud to my dog. I think he enjoyed the stories.

      As I aged, I began to write more and more. When I was ten years old, my littlest sister was born, and I wrote her a series of short stories in a small journal about a princess named Starla. I even drew little pictures on the bottom of each page, and my Dad would read them to her every night. In fifth grade, I purchased a notebook made out of recycled paper and wrote my first longer short story. It was about a boy who fell down a hole and into a parallel universe located in the outer core, which when I think about it now is ridiculously impossible, but I was so proud of it. That same year I wrote a story about a boy who traveled in a time machine so he could witness his mother’s high school graduation. I seemed to write a lot of fantasy stories.

       Writing took a back seat until my sophomore year of high school when I took a creative writing course. I reconnected with my passion, and once again started writing stories almost every day. As usual, most of my stories were unrealistic and fantasy: one about two girls in the army who stole a jet and accidentally flew to another planet, one about a boy who lived in a rainforest for two years and survived by eating only sticks and stones. And now, my latest story is about a girl who has superpowers and is trying to take over the world. I guess I have a pretty vivid imagination.

       I began writing for the school newspaper, starting as the online editor my junior year and upgrading to the editor in chief my senior year. My passion for creative writing has never left me, but I started to develop a love for storytelling through my news, opinions and sports articles. I want to be a writer for the rest of my life. I long to write a book someday, and that has been a dream of mine all my life. Though this is a difficult goal, it is one that I strive to achieve every day, and I plan to develop my writing skills to do just that.

       I graduated high school in June 2018 and now attend Western New England University. I am a Creative Writing major and Communications minor, and I am also in the College of Arts and Sciences Honors Program. I am the Copyeditor for The Westerner - The Student-Run Newspaper, and the Secretary for The Review of Art and Literature - our Literary Magazine.