Does creative writing count as an art form? If you don’t think so, it does. Much like how an artist will stir the hearts of those who lay eyes on their creations, a writer can evoke the most heart-wrenching thoughts and force a reader to walk a mile in the tumultuous journeys fabricated by their mind. Just like cave paintings, a written language and storytelling is a defining trait of humanity. That’s what entranced me about reading. Every form of expression and imagination became a more mature version of playing pretend in elementary school. However, it wasn’t until middle school that I was actually exposed to the idea of writing through fanfiction. A girl’s favorite piece of media, and being able to insert herself into the world to interact with the beloved characters. What more could see want? Well, to write her own fantasy books that will have young children like her enamored with her storytelling. And that’s exactly what I want to do. I may be no Shakespeare, but oh to have your work immortalized and loved for centuries after your death. Dare I say, it made me a better thinker. I sometimes wonder if I was a poet from the Romantic era considering how much of the ideology I carried without knowing it could be classified as Romantic. Pardon my morbid thoughts on death. I am quite the melancholic. Not in the sense that my sorrow comes from unknown roots, but from knowing too much. Out of the four humors, melancholy was revered. A melancholic person’s wisdom comes from spending countless hours mulling abstract thoughts in their head that most people are too cowardly to even entertain. Often times, melancholics are lonely because they can’t stand not being around others who can’t reflect for the life of them. Yet we wouldn’t trade our knowledge for blissful ignorance and conform just because ordinary people say so. All these thoughts came to me from reading and writing. Writing is the most sacred art form because it’s not always meant to entertain like a play. Much like a painting, it’s supposed to make you look deep within your soul and confront emotions you didn’t know were buried there. To bash it open like a pomegranate and disect it to extract the succulent, ruby fruit from within. Then with patience you savor the juice of the seeds that bursts on your tongue from when your teeth gently sink into the delicate flesh.

My family is a mess you see. I could probably make a telenovela out of it. My father came from Mexico looking for a better income since he grew up on a ranch. My mother faced a lot of financial instability in Nicaragua and needed a way to send money to her sons. Somehow they met, and I was born, completely unaware of the injustices I would have to overcome. Both my parents resent each other, and in turn, caused me to resent some parts of myself. My mother would lament the way Mexicans supposedly talked, and constantly corrected my Spanish if I used words she didn’t deem proper. My father would also nitpick at tendencies I picked up from my mother, saying I nagged like my mother and wasn’t proper Mexican because I ate food from her home country. Then I was in for a rude awakening when I discovered my father had many children before me. He tended to be absent for work as most Latino fathers do, and left me to be raised by my mother. However, he once brought me to meet my older siblings who were only a few years older than me. He did not protect me when they took out their anger on me. I understand they were children, but I shouldn’t have taken the brunt of my father’s shortcomings. It only got worse in high school. He told me he paid for their college, a few of which haven’t done anything with their degrees, yet he won't help me for my college for reasons I cannot fathom. Yet he's the one telling me to apply to MIT and Harvard when he doesn’t know anything about student loans. My mother was a wonderful woman, but she became a Scientologist. If you don’t know, it's a cult. That’s all I need to say, and I feel bad because I know they’re taking advantage of her emotionally vulnerabilities and want to take her money. She won’t listen to my pleas, so I’m left on my own to make my own path. The biggest thing I got out of this family is resilience and spite. Thankfully, my mother strove for my education despite my ADHD hindering me at first in school. She let me be held back in second grade because I wasn’t on par with my peers, and it helped me. With an IEP, I was able to continue through middle school and high school as an honors student. Even now, I'm part of the National Society of High School Scholars, and many colleges have offered me scholarships to attend their schools. As of now, I’m going to Full Sail University on a Creative Minds Scholarship for creative writing; most of which will pay my tuition. I want to make a life out of my writing, get my mother the help she needs so that she can leave Scientology, and make enough money to help my younger brother also get through college, who is also going through the same hurts I did growing up in this family.

Writing is an exhilarating experience. There's so much fun in complex world-building, plot-making, and character development. I began writing in sixth grade for the enjoyment of changing the endings of my favorite shows and media, but soon it became my artistic expression that I would hone for years. Writing helped me throughout emotionally excruciating times. I won't get into the personal details. It would feel as if I were to expose a very messy and raw side of myself, but to summarize, I made poems and short stories based on small concepts such as burnout, lethargy, and anguish. I found that the solemn short stories and poems were cathartic, soothing my woes like a balm to a gushing wound. I also adored taking inspiration from Romantic Era writings because they resonated with my writing style, and it sparked my interest in publishing my works. Once I got better, I decided to expand on writing through my schoolwork. I enrolled in advanced classes such as Pre-Honors English, Gate, and AP English during high school. My objective was to keep honing my writing and learn other forms such as argumentative essays to build on my experience with plot-making. I also joined a creative writing club that didn't last long because they didn't hold meetings that often. I've also reached out to newspapers and magazines to publish my works. I'm also looking to join writing competitions once my financial situation gets better. Once I graduate high school, I hope to become a renowned author or journalist. Other than that, I adore using my writing capabilities to help my peers and friends. I occasionally proofread and offer feedback for essays and CERs to my peers to meet the rubric's criteria. However, I get to exercise my technique and display my experience when it comes to making D&D (Dungeons & Dragons) campaigns. I taught the DMs (Dungeon Masters; think of them as the narrator) how to make stories to keep their players engaged while also ensuring that they don't abandon the campaign, a common problem due to too much improvisation. It's called "sandwiching", and you do it by having a beginning and an ending to act as the bread of your story. Everything else that you put in between will be the rising actions, climax, and falling action. They found it very helpful. Since writing is a big part of myself, and since I'm in the Virtual Business course at my school, I'm working on making a company with affordable editorial and marketing services. Though, I know that's not always promised with AI threatening the livelihood of writing, I need to stretch myself out and seize every opportunity I come across.