Everyone is asked as a kid what they want to be when they grow up. It's kind of funny if you think about it, because everyone replies with "a firefighter" or "a major league baseball player." I said I wanted to be a teacher, like many of my other 10-year-old classmates. Fast forward a few years to high school, when teachers began to ask what we wanted to do with our lives. I began to think "what do I actually see myself doing forever?" And the answer was defiantly not a teacher. I was writing a paper for my history class, and I finally figured out what I wanted to do; I wanted to be a writer.
It's funny to think about how I got to that conclusion, and how I never thought about writing until high school. When I was in elementary school, even before my 10-year-old self told everyone I wanted to be a teacher, I was constantly reading and writing. I would write these stories just for fun and make up different situations in my head. Of course, my story was included with size 25 font, which came out to be five pages. Impressive to a 9-year-old me.
When I started middle school I loved my creative writing class the most and remember doing really well in it. English class was my favorite because it included writing essays and book reports, I was probably the only student that enjoyed doing that. I remember writing a paper for my English class in the eighth grade and having the teacher ask me to stay after class, she told me how impressed she was with my writing and that I would do well in high school. I thought it was cool and thanked her for the compliment, but I never thought much further than that.
When I started high school, my ninth grade English teacher was a fan of creative writing and only telling us half of a story and making us finish it. This was my favorite because I loved making my own ending and twisting the plot in the way I wanted. Sophomore year of high school, my social studies professor assigned an essay about the Holocaust, and that she was going to pick the top essays from her class and submit them to a local contest. I was one of the chosen essays to be submitted to the contest, where I won an award.
Here is where I discovered and finally figured out what I wanted to study in college and pursue as a career. I wanted to study English and journalism, and somehow pursue a career in writing. Throughout the rest of my high school career, English class was my favorite and I enjoyed writing essays more and more. I applied to colleges senior year of high school and made the decision to attend St. Joseph's College to study English.
I am now a senior at SJCNY, and I'm graduating in May. I have spent the last four years writing countless essays, taking more English classes than I can count, writing for the school paper, and even writing for The Odyssey, an online magazine. I wrote over 30 pages for my senior thesis about Shakespeare, which taught me more about time management, organization and proofreading then I thought it would. The last four years have taught me a lot, as well, and I have narrowed down what I want to do with a career in writing; editing. I enjoy helping my friends with their essays and I really enjoy writing and fixing my articles for The Odyssey.
Writing use to be something I did for fun, or just to pass time and I never thought seriously about how to further a passion into a career. Now, I cannot wait to see where my degree will take me after college.
