The Beginning...

The title is a bit ambiguous and perhaps a little ambitious (and maybe some other fun 'a' words that I could come up with before the alliteration got annoying...) so I will try to explain. I'm not going to talk about the beginning of me, as in the day I was born, because I don't really know a whole lot about that day... My mom probably doesn't really remember it either. Really, the only thing we need to know about that day is that it happened and therefore the rest of life happened as well. The beginning I'm referring to occurred when I was in 5th grade. Before this time I do have some memories, but not many...and most of those were from 4th grade. This particular year was the year I learned that reading was fun and interesting and fascinating. Prior to this I don't recall reading much. Perhaps I did and don't remember it, but I do remember thinking that I had never liked books much before this, so I'm guessing that I wasn't an avid reader before this book.
The book that changed everything was Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt. It was the first book that ever spoke to my imagination, tickled it under the chin, and coaxed it out of its latent repose...although, I didn't think about it in those terms at the time. :) My heart was captured by a normal little girl who finds something extraordinary, interacts with it, and has to make a decision whether to embrace it or not. The final scenes in the book are still branded into my memory, and it's been 10 years since I've read it last. Poignant is probably the best word I can use to describe it. I cried both times I have read it because I was so sad that she made the choice she did, but I was so happy about it at the same time...and I think if it ended the opposite way, I would do the same (Although, I think it ended right). So thank you, Natalie Babbitt, for writing the book that made me into a reader; Thank you, Mrs. Ziesloft (sp?) for making us read it in your 5th grade class; and thank you to the name-forgotten student teacher who actually lead the unit for that book that year.

It was a good beginning. I think from that moment on I have rarely been ANYWHERE without a book. I remember reading a book as I walked in the halls all through middle school...yeah, I was weird. Most of the time I would rather be reading...except now that I have started writing my own book. It was just a few years after my fateful collision with Tuck Everlasting that I started writing, and I've written on and off ever since. However, I decided sometime this year that I wanted to make a career out of it. So I call myself a writer, but I don't have anything published yet...I will though. I'm excited to share my stories with other readers and hopefully inspire others to beautiful moments. Thanks for reading!