That summer before sixth grade, my life changed. In that small jump between elementary school and junior high I aged a decade. Suddenly, my life seemed short. I was old. I wasn't famous yet. I would soon be heading to middle school... then high school... then college.... then what?I realized if I wanted to become somebody unique, someone different, I had to get started now. I realized that, more than anything, I wanted to become a famous author.
Ever since I was a little kid I'd always had a passion for writing. I didn't just write every once in a while- I wrote all the time. Writing was my life. I created dozens of picture books by the age of three, I graduated to short stories by the age of six, and by the time I was nine, I was already working full-out on a novel (the longest I ever got was 75-typed pages in size 12 font before quitting). In my mind no profession was more noble than that of an author. I imagined they spent all day in high turret towers scrawling down their wisdom, with story ideas coming to them like rain drops in a storm. Not only that, authors achieved the ultimate fame. Not only did they have their words read by everyone, but they also had their names in printed on book covers, their words sung in to songs, their books created into movies... they could also make a lot of money. To me it seemed like a way of immortality. A way to stay in the world even after you were gone. I wanted to be like J.K. Rowling, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Dr. Suess.
And so, that summer before sixth grade, I decided that in order to become a writer, I needed to gain valuable experiences. How could someone write an adventurous fantasy story about villians, love, sword-fighting, and danger without ever experiencing themselves? I created a plan.
I needed to have the most exciting, unsual life I could have before high school. I needed to have something worth writing for.
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