April 5th, 2008, I was born into the state of New Jersey. I’ve spent the majority of my life living in Jersey City where the seasons changed violently, people walked swiftly, and admired New York City’s view from across the water. I grew up in a black household, raised by a single, teen mother with help from family. My mother was about 19 years old when she had me and unfortunately, had to drop out of college to better our situation. We didn't live on our own until late middle school and we spent as little money as we could. As a kid, I was insanely oblivious to our financial struggles but, I now notice the signs looking back on everything. I didn’t get an idea of what I wanted to do after high school until I moved to Pennsylvania towards the end of my freshman year. Up until the move, I had only seen college as a scam or something I could never afford. After learning more about financial aid and scholarships, I realized that is simply not true. Throughout my life, I found myself having phases of hyperfocusing on one hobby at a time, thinking that it would be my career one day. There was sketching, gymnastics, singing, designing clothes, and many others. I noticed that what remained consistent since my childhood was my imaginativeness and love for reading and writing. Combining the three, I knew that writing stories or just having an English-focused career would be best fitting for me. This fall semester, I will be starting at Penn State University’s main campus to major in English after careful consideration. My goal is to write something or help write something that evokes emotion and/or curiosity. Whether it’s a book or an article, I want the reader to learn at least one new thing or feel like they can get lost in my work the same way I get lost in other writers’ work. The author that initially inspired me to take my writing more seriously was Gillian Flynn. Her dark book themes and unique style of writing was and is unique to me. When I first read her book Sharp Objects, I knew that I'd never forget how that book made me feel. The feeling of forgetting, even for a split second, that you’re reading words on a page rather than actually experiencing the world created within the book is one of the strangest yet greatest feelings. Seeing her also become a screenwriter after the success of her books was inspiring to me as well. When writing a book, I don’t think most people realize that you need to have the knowledge and mental understanding of every character in your piece, more specifically if it’s fictional. That means adapting different personalities, economic classes, cultures, political views, dialects, and more. While it sounds overwhelming to write from the perspective of multiple different people, it’s another thing I like about writing. Not only am I learning new things when I’m researching for my story but I could also possibly be teaching readers things through my story. I want my writing to have an academic and emotional impact on people and on the world.