Why am I Here?

I have never considered the question "why am I here" before.

The simple answer would be: I am here because I love to write. However, when has writing ever been simple? 

I grew up surrounded by books. My mother, being a reading specialist, taught me to read at a very young age. Instead of hiring a babysitter, she would drop me and my siblings off at Barnes & Noble, where we would devour pages upon pages of books. 

My love of literature quickly grew into a passion for writing. I enrolled in screenwriting programs at the School of the New York Times and filled notebooks with ideas and plot structure. However, I never thought I could make a career out of it. 

I came to High Point University as a student ready to pursue a degree in Media Production. I quickly realized that this wasn’t going to be the path for me. I wanted to trade the control room for a writer’s room; the camera’s for a keyboard. Upon this realization, I shifted my educational endeavors to a double major in English and Journalism. This way, I could write creatively, academically and journalistically, all the while acquiring the skills necessary to achieve my dream of some day working in the publishing world. 

My time at HPU hasn’t been smooth sailing. After my first week of classes freshman year, I wanted to transfer. It wasn’t homesickness or nerves, I genuinely could not see myself graduating from HPU in four years. I opened the transfer portal to begin applications, and yet my mom told me to “stick it out for one semester.” 

I am so glad I listened. 

That "one semester" turned into me completing my freshman year and excited to come back for more. Now I am a junior, gradutation just one year away, and I can't imagine being anywhere else.

If I hadn’t “pushed through,” and given myself the opportunity to keep an open-mind, I wouldn’t have met the friends and mentors I have today. Dr. Carlson, a professor in the English department, made me realize the talent I have for writing, and the passion I have for literature. He believed in me as I struggled through his Critical Theory class, and celebrated me when I submitted my final piece on psychoanalysis in The Awakening. This paper has now been accepted into the National Undergraduate Literature Convention, which I will be presenting at in April. 

If I hadn’t “pushed through,” I wouldn’t have added a journalism major and met the incomparable Bobby Hayes. If I hadn’t taken his Copyediting class, I wouldn’t have come to the realization that I wanted to pursue a career in publishing. 

While I am here because I love to write, the real reason I am here is because I didn’t allow myself to give up the minute things got hard. I allowed myself to change my mind, to explore different opportunities, and to make connections with people who genuinely want to see me succeed.