I’ve always aspired to be a writer. If I can’t live by my pen, then I’d like to work with literature. I don’t want to sound cocky, but I always thought I was pretty good at writing. Usually my papers got A’s, my articles for the school paper were interesting and clever and I was submitting short stories for the school literary magazine, but there was a time when things were looking down for me.
Last fall, I felt like writing wasn’t cut out for me. My first English paper of the semester had received a C+ and that was a terrible set back. In my journalism class, my first few stories had turned up as duds. Occasionally, I would write in a journal. Writing creatively or using it as a place for my thoughts to go, but at that time I couldn’t think of anything to write about so it was blank for a few months. What was I suppose to do? It looked like I would have to figure out a different life plan.
Suddenly, inspiration hit. It was that simple. I used my real life experience of working at a grocery store and wrote an article for the paper called, “I am a Working Teen.” After it was published, I was notified that my article had been selected for the National Edition of the online paper. Success at last!
After my article was published, I realized that I was being silly. Maybe I won’t be a famous novelist, but I have some talent. Since then, I’ve been published nationally two more times on My High School Journalism website. I also realized something else, something really important about life in general. Life is going to be rough and make me want to give up, but I can’t. I have to always keep trying even when things seem bleak. And I will.