When I Write...

I will always remember the first time I felt really proud of what I wrote for school. It was a story we had to create for ourselves about our journey on the Oregon Trail way back when I was in 5th grade. I was so confident that it was the best one in the group, I even voted for myself when we needed to choose who's story was going to be read to the class out of our group. Mine didn't get picked, but I will always remember how happy I was with what I wrote that day.

Now I'm much more humble about my writing, as opposed to voting for myself as the best piece of work when I was around 10 years old. That Oregon Trail story really flicked a switch in myself and shed light to a new favorite hobby. It only took a couple years for me to start writing for fun on my own. My 7th grade English class focused on creative writing most of the time, and I began to enjoy inventing stories, characters and fantastic lands during my free time outside of class.

This was when I discovered my passion for writing.

I was very shy when I was young. It was hard for me to interact with new people, or even people I knew rather well. I was just extremely quiet, unsure and always nervous about what to say to someone. I found solace in books, especially Harry Potter. JK Rowling was my biggest hero, and I wanted nothing more than to achieve something as great as her.

I understand now that creating an industry as huge as Harry Potter is near impossible, but my dream of one day being published has lived on to this day. To have the ability to put pen on paper or fingers on a keyboard and create this amazing story with characters never seen or heard of before is an incredible experience. I find myself whisked into faraway places deep into my imagination, allowing me to escape the present day for even a short period of time. Even if I'm not creating a new story, just writing about anything helps me relieve stress and worry. I've kept a journal my entire life, and now blogging has added to help fuel my passion in similar, yet different way.

The fact that I've been given the opportunity to write my story and have it published is a dream I never thought would actually come to a reality. Yet, here I am, writing something that will be seen on Amazon and Barnes and Noble one day. To have a physical copy of something I wrote...words cannot describe how happy that would make me. 2014 could be the year that this happens, and I seriously can't contain my excitement.

I work at Disneyland, and I'm getting published. 2013, you've been very, very good to me.