My People

Writers are my people.

I love books. I mean crazy, I could live in a fort built of my books because I have so many, love. When I was in Elementary school and we did Read Across America, I had crisscrossed the country several times before most of my class had gotten to the Mississippi. I have always written stories, but it was something I did in addition to whatever else I was doing in my life.  I never considered that the voices I heard in my head would someday get so loud that they would demand that they get their turn.

I'll admit it.  Until recently, I had no idea what I was going to do with my life.  While my friends left college and got on with their careers, becoming teachers or professionals, I killed time.  I knew that I was not an office type of person, I would never be satisfied working a 9 to 5 job, but I also  found out that I was really good at dealing with the details of other people's lives.

This year, finally, after years of talking about it, I applied to an MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults at Spalding University and I was accepted.  The day I heard was an amazing day and something finally clicked for me.  I haven't started the program yet, that will come this July in Dublin, but I know that I have finally found the place that I belong.

Yesterday, I went to a panel of YA authors at my local Barnes and Noble.  Standing in the back, listening to them talk about their novels and the writing process, watching them banter with the audience, I could see myself doing that.  I would be happy doing that.  One of the voices in my head broke away from the rest and whispered, "These are your people."  More specifically, I think YA writers and readers are my people.  I am starting on a journey and I hope along the way, I will find more of my people.

“Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home.”
― Anna Quindlen, How Reading Changed My Life