You're five years old and you're just learning how to read. You're amazed by words and books and fascinated when your kindergarten teacher reads you stories out loud. Your read picture books whenever possible and your Mommy is reading you a chapter book. Reading captivates you.

Now you're six and have just begun first grade. You read so much that your teacher calls you ''an avid reader''. You aren't quite sure what ''avid'' means, but it sure sounds impressive.

By December, you've discovered Harry Potter and you wonder how someone could write something so amazing. Harry Potter is your new obsession-- you have Harry Potter posters on your walls, wear Harry Potter t-shirts, and practice your British accent so you'll be ready if it's ever turned into a play. You've read all the books that have come out so far, and your teachers are impressed-- your classmates are, for the most part, still reading Frog & Toad!!

Second Grade is where you realize your dreams-- you want to write. Books, magazines, newspapers-- you'll do it all if you can maybe captivate someone like J. K. Rowling captivated you.

In third grade you have a great teacher who loves to write. She even has a special ''author's chair'' where kids sit to read their work aloud to the class. Every week you write a story using spelling words. To put it in four words: You are in heaven!

When you enter middle school, you feel the creativity being sucked out of you like a giant vacuum is scouring the left side of your brain. All your 6th grade English teacher wants you to do is read boring books, do Wordmasters (blech!) and write essays. (You write your persuasive essay on how much you hate Wordmasters!) But you still make up funny stories in your head and occasionally write them down.

In your 7th grade English class, you are blessed with an amazing English teacher. Even though you still have to do vocabulary and grammar, he actually makes class entertaining!!

Unfortunately, your seventh grade year seems to be plagued by incessant bullying. Your best friend turns against you and another girl picks on you and sends you mean messages. You spend lots of time alone, curled up, reading. Frankly, you aren't too down while buried in a book. It's nice, actually, to escape into worlds full of magic and good vs. evil. Reading about Harry, Hermione, and Ron feels like greeting old friends.

In eighth grade, you discover Teenink.com, a website devoted to young people's writing. You submit many poems and an essay about your amazing late grandmother, and four poems and the essay are published online. Your first experience being ''published'' is fun!!! You love the feeling that someone, at any time, could be reading something you wrote.

Your dream has always stayed alive, and you've never let go of it. You still wish to be a writer, and know that someday, you can make that dream come true.