When I was several years old, I received exactly that from my great-grandmother. Almost instantly I had a name for the inanimate creature: Herna. After spitting out the name, I earned myself numerous confused and intrigued looks from my family members. This, my dear friends, is where my book of creativity begins.
I kept a journal. I doodled in it and my doodles had even wackier names than the stuffed dog. I started out sketching and painting, then dancing, then singing, then a weird interval where I desired to be an astronaut, followed by wanting to be a picture book illustrator, until I finally settled on writing and writing alone. That was fall of 2009 when I was twelve years old.
Now, how did I realize that writing is my one true passion?
At that age, there were two book series I greatly admired: The City of Ember series by Jeanne Duprau and the Ingo series by Helen Dunmore. The characters, the plots, the conflicts, the twists and turns all intrigued me and left me in an obsessive state of awe for weeks and months afterward. I found myself wishing to be able to write books that sparked the same reactions in my own readers. I was overcome with this immense desire to inspire through words. And so I sat down at my computer and started a book. I never finished it, and it was rather atrocious - as were the majority of pieces I wrote at that age - but hey, I was proud at the time.
As the years passed I continued to write. I discovered my passions for theatre, skiing, and astronomy along the way, but the art of words remained in first place. In spring of 2011 I had a poem published in an anthology. August 2011 I joined a website titled Inkpop, which helped me improve my skills, expand my passion, and meet many other dedicated writers. November of 2012 I finished my first ever novel in a mere twenty-seven days. Summer of 2013 I dedicated an Instagram to posting my own poetry (which you can find under the username tearsofsaturn). Fall of 2014 one of my short stories found its way into another anthology.
Yet, at this point in my life, none of the pieces mentioned above are what I view as my greatest accomplishment.
A year ago I was asked by my theatre teacher if I was interested in penning the script for the following school year’s elementary Christmas production. Immediately I said yes. I wrote it in the months that followed and realized how much I truly adored scriptwriting. I wound up co-directing the play as well, which was performed in December 2014. It was a truly remarkable experience.
During this current moment in time I continue to adore writing. I’ve been doing plenty of scientific research for another novel that I’ve been planning for a while and am developing a habit of writing a poem each day. I’m set to graduate from high school in a few months and in 2016 I plan to move to a different city in order to take a screenwriting course at a well-known film school in Vancouver. Some day, some time in the future I hope to be able to walk into a bookstore to find my name perched on the wooden shelves, and to walk into a movie theatre and see my name appears at the end of the credits. I cannot express my excitement and anticipation to see where this river flows and I am enjoying every minute of my journey there.
PS. I still own Herna. She’s a grand - though worn out - companion of mine.
-Kristin
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