It all started with my first bestselling novel at age 5. When I first presented my creation of stapled papers with pictures and misspelled words to my father, he was so proud that he insisted on showing my extended family at the next gathering. Each page had a different illustration of the same six rainbow bears travelling to different places and overcoming challenges along the way. It was formatted so a caption lined the bottom of each picture explaining where they were headed next on their grand adventure. Their journey came to an end when they found the sun at the top of a hill.

As my book got passed around amongst my many aunts, uncles, and cousins, I received many compliments on my writing. I was asked numerous questions about what I wanted in the future even though I was too young to know at the time. After my grandfather asked me if I was going to continue writing stories, I decided in that very moment that it was indeed something I would like to carry on. So forth, I persisted on writing stories about magical fairies that lived in my garden, or animals that lived in a zoo. My writing soon began to branch out as I got older when I became more interested in my extended family’s experiences. As a result, I produced stories with events that sounded oddly familiar like that incidents that had occurred in my aunts and uncles lives. During dinners, storytelling was something that always occupied our conversations. I was always quiet; however, I observed and listened to what everyone had to say, and scribbled ideas and things to remember in my journal every now and then.

Writing appealed to me because it was like starting with a clean canvas where you could paint a picture or idea of anything you wanted. Twelve years later after composing my first work of fiction, I still crave these same dreams of becoming a novelist. The possibilities are endless as I can create a world where communist dogs can overthrow the government, or where every bank in the U.S. gets robbed, and still make it worth people’s time to read. As I begin to find my own style, I tend to write about more significant things that carry messages and project meaning onto my life. Writing is simply a way of expression.

Though I was too naïve to understand how life in itself worked, my first book about the rainbow bears confronting and surmounting challenges along their adventure describes the patterns of life. Like the rainbow bears in the story helping each other reach their goal together, my family helps support my aspirations of being a writer and tells me not to get discouraged when I am confronted with an obstacle. Everyone that has surrounded me in my life has influenced my writing in some way – even that random man on the bus that spilled coffee on himself that one time.