In the fourth grade, I sat down at my mom’s bulky desktop PC and wrote my first creative writing piece. I'd never been so proud of my work before, and it was this essay that made me realize my passion for creative writing. In Mr. Emmons' seventh grade English class, I began writing analytically. I never cared much for analytical writing through middle school. I found the books drab and they seemed to drone on for hours in a world of nothingness.

Freshman year of high school was more of the same. Analyzing books that I would later use to kill bugs in my room. When I hit tenth grade, my views of analytical writing changed. I realized that if I enjoyed the book, then searching for the hidden meaning behind its words could be enjoyable as well. My eleventh grade Literature and Composition III class solidified this viewpoint.

In class my senior year of high school, I wrote creative writing pieces in the voice of various characters from the novels we read. These assignments were one of the few creative writing pieces we wrote in class, however, it reminded me of my love for imaginative writing while pushing me to analyze a character in depth.

As much as I grew to love analytical writing, for my final year of high school I made the decision to take found voices - a creative writing class that I'd longed to be in since my sister raved about how fantastic it was when she was a senior in 2011.

Found voices was my chance to express myself in a way that I otherwise would not be able to. I wrote pieces ranging from horror to romance, from comedy to history. I loved every minute of it. If not for that class, I wouldn't be a writer today.