The Story of Writing

A cake. That's how my struggles first began. A cake with frosting and sprinkles and gumdrops and licorice and gummy bears and jelly beans and M&Ms and a pickle. More specifically, I suppose it was the pickle that started those struggles. See, I had to be the pickle. I had to let the thoughts of me, the pickle, flow effortlessly onto some sheet of paper, which then had to be carefully typed and then edited and then submitted to my Enriched Language Arts teachers.

This assignment, as well as many others, did not go so well for me. I was taking ELA in fifth and sixth grade, and although I had many fantastic ideas and a wild imagination, I could never seem to capture them with words. It was my deepest dream to be able to express the passion I felt, the beauty I saw. I wanted others to feel and see it it too. I wanted to connect with other people through words, beautiful, inspiring words. Yet my writing always felt dry, boring, and clunky. It wasn't until I wrote my last story ever for the class that something clicked. I cant explain what happened, I just couldn't keep my pen from flowing with words about a girl with golden eyes named Annabel who was trying to save the world. My teachers returned the assignment to me with a good grade and a note recommending I try out for the middle school writing team. I took their advice and ended up making the team. From there, my writing improved and my love of it grew and grew.

One of my favorite experiences that I gained from writing was New Stages, a play series my high school puts on every year. New Stages features six or seven student written, one-act plays that are directed by students and, of course, performed by students. Normally, only upperclassmen's plays get selected, but the year I was a sophomore, my play was one of the selected plays. It was an amazing experience, seeing something I'd created in my head actually happening. It was also extremely rewarding when my play made people laugh, and then, when people came up to me and told me how much they had enjoyed it. This experience reinforced my desire to be a writer. Ideally, I want to write fiction and plays, but I also don't mind writing nonfiction. This is why I want to find someway to combine my love of writing with my interest in environmental science. And then, maybe I could still write fiction on the side.

A picture of the cast and I

A trail through the woods at my summer camp. The beauty of the land here always inspires me to write.