There aren’t many things of interest I can say about myself, but I will do my best.
Funnily enough, I hated to read fiction as a child (and even as a young man). You couldn’t get me to read anything fictional, even if you held a gun to me. Anything, that is, except for The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien. That was the only fantasy work I gave the time of day. When it came to Nonfiction, however, I was more than willing. In early grade-school I read as much as I could about human history. To this day I remain fascinated by it. I read about the Battle of Berlin when I was told to read Clifford the Big Red Dog, or about the 300 Spartans in Thermopylae when I should’ve been enjoying Green Eggs and Ham. I was just so excited (and at times disturbed) that these events really happened to real people. History is where my passion was.
It wasn’t until late high-school that I decided to branch out from Tolkien. It was a very reluctant step for me, as I worshiped Tolkien to an embarrassing degree. In my mind, why would I read any other fantasy when the best one is already on my shelf? Even though I stand by the statement of it being the best, I stepped into a world full to the brim with other talented voices. The first fantasy book I dove into in that time was Patrick Rothfuss’ Name of the Wind. What a place to start. I was enamored by the first page. The book blew my mind, and continues to do so. It made me regret my delay in reading other people’s work. From that day forward there was no stopping me. I read all the fantasy I could find. So much talent out there.
I decided I wanted to write myself after I was given a project to do so in my Grade 12 English class. I was tasked to write a fictional story that came to roughly 5 pages. Mine was over 30. I simply couldn’t stop once I started. It was too much fun. I didn’t expect to earn any compliments on my short (or not-so-short) story. However, I somehow managed to earn the highest mark in the class. The only perfect score. After that, I wrote every day. Maybe my teacher was just being nice, or the competition just wasn’t very impressive in my class. Whatever the reason, that good score truly changed my life. A little bit of confidence, trifling or not, can take a person a long way.
At this current time, I have one ultimate goal that I work slowly toward every day: eventually, I hope to write something that makes someone as happy as The Lord of the Rings made me. Even if it is only one single person, and everyone else finds my work lacking, I will still consider my goal complete. Maybe one day.