I came to college as an English major. I did a really bad job of exploring colleges, and I really tried to avoid the topics at all costs. I didn’t want to think about leaving high school and all the people I had grown up with. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life, so I picked something I liked and was good at: English.

Little to my knowledge, my College Composition I class was taught by a Writing Arts grad student. On the first day of class, we went through the usual icebreakers, and it wasn’t until he told us about himself that I realized Writing Arts was a thing. I didn’t even know Rowan offered it.

He told us that he was working on a novel, and he taught this class as part of the program. I don’t know, I could have those details wrong. After he mentioned writing a novel, my world sort of stopped. I never considered being a writer until that point.

I talked to advisors, and within two days, I was a Writing Arts major. But I know that it’s a major that produces funny looks because college is about getting educated and a degree so that you can get a stable job as an adult.

Life as a writer is never guaranteed. I’ll never have a stable job or income, but I’m okay with that.

I don’t care if I never have a New York Times Bestseller. I don’t want to be a writer to make a shitload of money. I want to be a writer to inspire readers. The greatest thing an author, of any kind, can do is elicit emotion in readers.

I want to make readers hate characters and fall in love with others. I want readers to make up their own stories based on my characters because they can’t help but imagine them in a hundred different situations.

I have a bookshelf that is filled edge to edge of stories that have made me cry, cheer, and throw a book across the room. I’ve had to take a break from reading just to digest the story. I’ve stayed up in the middle of the night because it’s only 50 pages until the ending.

The emotion I feel from reading is enough to motivate me to create something just as special. If I never get published? Fine. That doesn’t mean I can’t share these stories. If I pull just one person into the world of these fictitious characters, that’s enough for me.