1A/N: this is the autobiographical essay I wrote for English class about how I became a writer. I think it's one of my better essays, and it explains a lot too.
I Am a Writer
I was 9 years old and in the fourth grade, in a class mixed with third, fourth, and fifth graders, put in one class because they were ahead of their peers. I cannot say that I was the smartest, but I tried very hard to impress those around me, including my intimidating teacher Mr. McKay. The class was one of those life changing challenges, where they push you so hard, you can do nothing but learn. It was a slippery slope with water constantly running down onto my hands that tried to grasp ahold of the lessons. I slipped and fell in the sciences and was completely washed out when it came to math. But I soon found a subject with a dry handle that I could hold onto. It came at the end of our 1800's history lesson—a writing assignment to write a creative short story based on a certain point in 1800's history. Some chose the Civil War, some chose the War of 1812, and some chose slavery. But I was fascinated by those that moved through St. Louis into the wild, wide open West. My story was about a girl my age in a wagon train traveling to California, and when the train gets into trouble and the girl breaks her leg, her dog is there to save the day.
It was the first creative story I had ever written and everyone was impressed at my writing style. I was finally in Mr. McKay's good graces as he announced my story as one of the best ones written, and I finally had a handle in that class. While some kids whizzed by in long division and figured out how to irrigate our class's garden the best, I was writing the best story in the class. I still remember the feeling, the feeling of recognition. It was then that I realized that I have talent.
That high of recognition took me through the fifth grade where I showed off the one and only story I ever wrote and let people admire me more. I never branched out and wrote my own stories, but I did do exceptionally well while writing school assignments. That was, until the Christmas of my sixth grade year, where I was gifted a journal with my favorite poem on it. My mother told me to write all my thoughts into it. It was not the first time, per se, that I had ever written things in a notebook- for I've been doing that since I could pick up a crayon, but it was the first time I took journaling seriously.
My journaling became the fuel to my hobby for writing, while my story from the fourth grade was my launching pad. About every day I wrote about my crushes, my friends, and how much I hated my teachers. It didn't feel like it, but I was sharpening my writing skills as much as I was dulling pencils. I have been journaling nearly every day since then and have accumulated up to 15 journals. If I read through them now, it will be obvious how much my writing style has changed.
My eighth grade year was the most pivotal moment in my creative life. I had just moved to Hawaii, leaving all my friends that I was beginning to become a teenager with. I was not accepted well in my new middle school because of race issues. But there was one girl who accepted me, and we became best friends. Soon we realized that our interests and skills correlated. She liked to draw, and I liked to write. In the journal that we passed between us every passing period, we created a comic. In the meantime, we would bounce multiple story ideas between us and collaborate. It was then that I officially fell in love with writing. The characters in our comic were based on my friend and me, and I realized that through writing, I could do anything and be anything I wanted to. I lived vicariously through my literary creations. Writing became my escape.
Ninth grade started, and I began thinking seriously about my future. In my past I had wanted to become many things: an artist, a photographer, an actress, a set designer, a director, a producer, a film maker, a screen writer, a novelist. I tried each thing until I realized that none of them were for me. I couldn't draw, I wasn't the greatest at photography and I was mediocre at acting but knew the industry was too competitive for my skill level, and I wasn't dedicated enough to become a novelist. My freshman English teacher gave us all an extra credit assignment later on in the year: write an article about music for the school's yearly magazine in which she ran with her Communications Academy class. I had written articles before for school newspapers and such, so the concept wasn't new to me. So I put my creative powers to work and got my article published in the magazine. It was about my first love and my first dance. I realized then that journalism was the perfect job for me. I have a short attention span, and a million ideas bustling around in my head. If I could put all my passion into a short article instead of trying to spread it out through an entire novel, my writing would come out better. From then on, when anyone asked me, "What are you going to be when you grow up?" my answer was no longer, "I don't know, a director maybe?" It was now "A journalist," and I said it with pride and confidence.
I am now in the twelfth grade, and I still aspire to be a journalist, and I still love to write. If you ask me to define myself in one word, I would say, "Writer." I am creative and passionate, and I love creating other worlds. There is nothing that makes me feel happier and more productive than adding a chapter to a story of mine or creating a short story. Through my high school years I have started many novels and haven't finished any of them. I have written close to 10 short stories and worked on the school newspaper where I was an editor for the editorial section. I am in the middle of writing my third novel and hopefully completing it, and I have recently gotten an internship at the Alcona County Review. My life is shaped by the words I form for the stories I create, and I would not have it any other way because I am a writer.