At age nine, I wrote a book. A glorious 13 chapters, 22-paged story about the riveting topic of summer vacation. However, The Best Summer Vacation was never actually published, so the world will never know of the heart-wrenching pain that 11-year-old Carrie faced when she was forced to miss a friend’s party to go on a family beach vacation.

Back then, my nine-year-old mind believed that missing slumber parties was a big enough issue to be immortalized in writing. I fantasized about becoming published. I wrote stories featuring wizards, vampires and even a scandalous story about a talking squirrel­­_{­­­­­­­­}­­­­­­­ which I titled The Mystery of the Cruisin’ Squirrel. The story featured a family on vacation as they were joined by an unexpected guest. It followed the adventures a little girl and a talking squirrel embarked on together while on the cruise vacation.

Still, as I got older, I refused to let my fantasy die. I wanted to be a successful writer as a kid, and I will be, minus the talking animals.

I’ve improved my writing style to emotional short stories and poems written and posted on a whim to my Tumblr blog online. Like other high school students, I get excited for the weekends. What makes me different is because I know that once I get off work on Friday nights or come home after long Saturday nights with friends, I can stay up late creating new story plots and writing the first chapter for a novel floating around in my head. Because of my passion, I’ve accepted the word “nerd” virtually tattooed on my forehead.

I’m determined to write elegant poetry, impactful short stories, symbolic literature and adventurous novels. I want to bring forth laughs from frowning lips and wrench tears from stony eyes. I want to grab readers and immerse them in a completely different world where magic can be real, fantasies come true and characters become alive. I want to be a writer.

I will gain the graceful abilities of Jane Austen and Margaret Mitchell to weave the most beautiful love stories. Words will flow from my mind and spin stories of truth, love and happiness, but also of sorrow, pain and tears. I’ll write of heart-racing danger and blissful euphoria. I want to experience the fear and ardent love in my characters’ hearts. My words will be read with passion and humor. I will change lives with words of wisdom.

I’ll probably never be able to write hundreds of sonnets or have the ability to create new words like Shakespeare. But I’ve probably started a hundred novels – talking animals, summer vacations, fantastic creatures and all. And I’ve probably written enough meaningless poems to get me started on this challenging career as a writer.

I may never be the next J.K. Rowling or Ray Bradbury. And I may not possess the literary symbolism of Hawthorne and Steinbeck. But I have passion, and that’s all I need for my story. And I know that someday my books will be analyzed by teachers, and students will dread having to read the award-winning novel by Molly Spain. The best part is that people will demand to read the unfinished manuscripts I wrote as a kid about summer vacations and talking squirrels.