I Write Because I Want To Sing and Dance (among other things)

I think I always wanted to be a writer, but under the guise of wanting to be other things. I wanted to be an archaeologist. I wanted to be a doctor. For a while I even wanted to be the person that rode on the back of a garbage truck, but name one kid who didn’t. I wanted to be a fashion designer, a veterinarian, a trauma psychologist for the Red Cross. I was basically career girl Barbie in my head, and in my head I had a whirl wind of adventures. When I was in high school, I got really into crime shows, and for a while I was a federal agent, and I chased bad guys and fell in love and jumped out of ten story buildings as they exploded. And I knew, knew deep down the more imaginative I got with these dreams the less likely they’d play out how I wanted. But I realized, I am realizing, that I don’t have to really experience these experiences, in order to live them.

I’ve been a reader since I could hold a book and make sense of words on a page, but I don’t remember being a really avid reader until I started reading the Harry Potter books. They were like crack to kids like me, dreamers like me, who longed to belong to a world apart from the mundane. And even though you can’t really pick up a wand and shoot spells or ride a broomstick (not to say I didn’t try) I think we all felt like we could, while we were reading at least. Stories have the power of transporting us into another reality, and even if our feet remain on the ground in our heads we can be wizards, or crime fighters, or doctors, or even circus performers if that’s your thing. As I got older I started writing, really writing, and the same feeling of inclusion I got from reading, I also got when I wrote. I am that archaeologist, even though I’m not. I am that garbage truck rider, even though it’s not as fun as I thought it’d be as a seven year old. What I’ve always loved about creating stories is that you aren’t limited to one life. As a writer I can be career girl Barbie; I can live out my infinite amount of dreams, my way, the way I want them to play out. I’d like to give some profound answer for why I write, maybe “I want to change the world!” or “I want to leave behind a legacy,” but the truth is I just want to do a million things before I die, and I think writing about them is the only way I’ll do them all. And who knows, maybe one day I’ll get published, and some bright eyed kid will read my words and want to be what I wanted to be, and actually be it.

Also, I write because I’m fly at it.