A yellow, luminiscent badge shimmers next to my article.I touched it gently. I felt waves of positivity vibrate through my finger cushions. A yellow, luminiscent badge. A magazine badge. My eyes are filled with tears, and I feel as though my world is a blur of emotion. The tears are too, blurs of yellow.

Every writer yearns to see his name in print. Every writer yearns to be recognized for his words.

I got my first magazine badge on Teen Ink on the 25th of July 2017. I felt as though this badge had been embedded into the deepest chambers of my heart. The frozen roots of my flimsy soul tightened with anticipation. The shadows of tree leaves ruffled my thoughts.

Yet, this is not it.

I am still striving. I am still striving to highlight all my works with yellow. I am still striving to work on my first novel.

I have sat atop life's twisted culvert, and gazed at the myriad entwinements of roads slithering before me.

This first magazine badge has made me dedicate a major portion of this road to success on Teen Ink.

No longer do the skies grey in agony. No longer do my writer's dreams splash in tattered wellingtons.