I have always been a reader. Since I was young I would take any excuse to read whatever book was currently on my mind. It never occurred to me how much I truly loved it, until one night. I was laying in my bed, searching through all the books on my eReader for something to take me away. Until I found you, and the story that has come to mean so much to me.
I stayed up until 4 a.m. to finish your book in one sitting. I had never done that before. It gave me this feeling in my bones that I had never felt before. I’ll never know how to describe it, other than pure joy. I now know that that was the exact moment that everything had changed. It was the moment where I knew that I wanted to make people feel the way I had after finishing your book. I wanted to achieve that by doing what you do. Writing. Not just writing, but writing novels. Even if I knew that right away, I kept it a secret for a long time. I was ashamed of that dream, because I thought people would tell me that it was impossible. That there was no way I’d ever write my own novel. So I kept it to myself, and I went to college with an undeclared major.
Over the years, I continued reading your books as they came out, and they always gave me that same feeling. At one point, I learned that you never planned on being a writer. That one day you just started writing, and here you are. That bothered me, yet reassured me. If someone could just all of a sudden start writing, then why couldn't I? This realization lit a fire inside of me. By the end of my first semester of college, I declared an English major, and slowly started to be more confident about it. Eventually, I started telling people what I wanted to do, and they started to support me. They even told me how envious they were of how ambitious I was. To say I was shocked would be an understatement, but it felt good.
There are still times when I lie about what I want to do with my future, because that fear is still in the back of my head. What's even scarier is having people know that this is my dream, in the chance that I don't ever achieve it. I try to put that out of my mind, and keep moving forward. Every time I read another one of your books, I am reassured. I know what I want to do, and I’ll never stop pursuing it. So, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for being an evil genius and throwing in the best plot twists. Thank you for always making me cry, whether they're tears of joy or sadness. Thank you for deciding to write, and continuing to do so. And finally, thank you for inspiring me.
Sincerely,
Your Most Avid Reader
