College and The Writer

Back in 2007, I could never imagine that journeys I would take and places I would visit or the person I would become. Coming from a sheltered upbringing, where church life was a 24/7 lifestyle, I started college wanting a new identity. Much to others pointed looks and cold words I took off in a new direction. To this day, I’m glad that I have. Without a doubt, I knew my life would have been bipolar opposite. Leaving behind the part of myself that I disliked so much, I found myself in this world for the first time with real eyes. I found the person I was denied of becoming. My love for reading and knowledge grew the more distance I placed between myself and the past.

 

Then in February 2009, I found my future. I discovered one novel that would forever change the direction my life was heading towards, and honestly that was nowhere. I was a sophomore at my local college, taking literature and music classes, trying to figure out what to do next. Had just left my job at a bookstore to work in a shoe store *cringe*. Than Beth Fantaskey’s YA novel, Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side, was released. I read it in less than a day. That day I knew without a doubt that I wanted to spend the rest of my life crafting novels like the one she had written.

 

Four year later, three novels written, two laptops and one degree received, I finally found the type of writer/person I had longed to be back in 2007 and 2009. I found the Christina who smiles at the silly tourist who invades her new town every day of the year that don’t know it’s history correctly and found a place in the business world she never thought she could co-exist with.

 

So my advice to both writers, readers and everyday people, is to be free. As the end of the year comes to a close, look forward to the future. Embrace the parts of yourself that others say you can’t be. Be that butterfly and find the YOU that you always daydream about. With a new year, let the years past be taken away with wind. You’ll be glad you did. :)