From a very young age, I discovered that education is a precious privilege that takes hard work and dedication to reach one's full capacity as a student. My dad is an alumnus of East Carolina University and acquired a major in English. Because of this, my direct blood brought me major advantages when it comes to my academic studies in the field.

I became completely in love (and almost obsessed with) English. I find words, writing, and language absolutely fascinating. My mom chose a similar route by majoring in communications, my chosen major.

I am an only child so my parents became more like my friends, rather than the overly-strict parental authority figures type. On road trips, we make fun by playing dictionary games, rather than the (boring to me) common normal ones such as "I Spy." I open up to a random page, pick the hardest word shown, and play judge while my parents challenge each other in a face-off, competing to see who can come up with the closest definition and spelling of the word first… a match made in *the English department.*

During high school, I faced the challenge of trying to overcome adversity in my life. I struggled with many personal issues, on top of dealing with the everyday stress that comes with that age in itself. Those were some of the most challenging years of my life; I often felt alone and as if I had no one to talk to.

I wanted more than anything to be normal, so I decided to learn about everything possible to expand my mind in all aspects. Knowledge is power, right? This led me to be a smarter, stronger, more mature, and healthy human being.

I learned the importance of not just memorizing information given, but actually understanding and immersing myself in the subject. I started working to gain a sense of control which strengthened my drive to succeed, but almost nothing seemed to work… until I started to write.

Writing became an outlet of escape for me; I felt confused and alone until I opened my journal or laptop. I wrote about my life to help me understand it and realize things that I would not have, had I not actually seen it on paper and read it back to myself. It made me feel better about my place in life. Writing gave me a purpose and the opportunity to create whatever story I wanted for myself, despite my reality. Nowadays, a lot of people don't care what you have to say; but writing to yourself presents the opportunity to release your thoughts to someone that does- you. All the things I had kept bottled up inside of me finally became released, without even having to confide in someone. Writing was my therapy.

I stayed committed to my studies and extracurricular activities because staying busy was the best approach to take. By creative writing for myself, I became unbelievably impressed with my writing for school purposes. This made me a good writer, a visual learner, and even created somewhat of a photographic memory for me. It also gave me confidence and brought me pure enjoyment. I then loved school because I liked being able to succeed in a subject so well since I felt insecure about so many other areas of my life.

I worked diligently to prove to myself that I was always the best writer compared to the others. I won scholarships and surpassed in my classes: by simply having the talent to throw a bunch of bullshit together on paper in an organized way with good grammar that flows, and still receive an A.

Now I am succeeding in all aspects (especially English) and finally have a more balanced and stable lifestyle going... but writing saved my life by getting me through times when that was not the case.