The History of Writing (for me, at least.)

I used to hate to write.

There, I said it. I used to think it was one of the most boring things you could do. I liked to read, though, but I guess I thought you had to have no life or you had to be crazy to actually write a book.

I remember in second grade I would ask my dad, "What do you think I'll be when I grow up?" I crossed my fingers and prayed that he would say, "Singer," because apparently, that was what everyone wanted to be at age seven.

Instantly Dad would say writer. My heart would sink and I would scowl and try to tell him to pick something else, but he would just keep on saying the same thing. I tried over and over again to see what he would say. Writer, writer, writer.

All this time, I didn't realize that I was always writing, every day. At school I had a journal, and every morning I would write some little story about a weird, poorly drawn character. The stories were really crazy (and bad) but I really looked forward to making up the stories and sharing them with the class.

All that time, I didn't realize I was a writer. I just looked through all my spiral notebooks from second grade, and I counted three. Three completely full journals. Most people didn't even fill up one.

Some of the entries included things like, "If I could be any animal, I would be a turtle because I like to be slow," and "Did you know that cheese is mold? Well it is! Cheese is rotten milk! I know, right!"

After a while, I started to stray away from the prompts my teacher would put up on the board and I would write my own things, started with little footnotes at the bottom of the page and going on to full on, four page stories. One of the stories was what would happen if I fell out of a plane. (Apparently I sang a song the entire way down and crashed into a tree and also fed on clouds. No idea.)

My biggest story was about a girl named Gloria and her boyfriend named Sylvester. I drew a bunch of pictures of things like Sylvester's Halloween costume and Gloria and Sylvester's wedding day. I wrote long stories every day about the weird pair's crazy adventures, and introduced characters along the way, including a really fat women with facial hair named Hermes.

Everyone in my class loved it when I shared my journal, so I did it every day. I loved it. And I thought I hated it the entire time! I guess thought being a writer meant writing a book, but now I know that's not necessarily true.

Second grade came to an end, and so did my journal. I moved into a new class, leaving all of my stories behind. I started third grade, and at first I hated it. I didn't think my teachers liked me, and I didn't make friends really quick.

I had a Language Arts teacher named Mrs. F. I admit I didn't really like her right off the bat (but trust me, that has changed.) She taught me all this new stuff about writing, things I had never known. That was when I started to like writing. I had another journal that year, but I didn't write in it that much, mostly because we weren't given that much time. The things in there are a bit longer and more complicated. Fourth grade was the same way: I learned so much more and wrote so much more. I got my laptop around that time, and I filled up my Drop Box with tons of different things.

Now here I am, writing nearly every day. Now whenever my Dad says I'll be a writer, I know I will, because that is what I love. Even though it sounds kinda cheesy, I feel like being a writer is who I am.

From the Gloria and Sylvester Chronicles and beyond!