This isn't a piece of fiction -- this is why I write. (Aka it's a true story)

Well when I was younger I always made picture books with my Mom (she did all the writing and I did the drawings) and I thought it was awesome. And then I started school and had to do writing like book reports or persuasive pieces. I love reading, I always have and I'm a fast reader. I kid you not I can read the entirety of the Harry Potter series in about three days. I would finish an assigned book in one class period but would pretend to not finish it for several days so I wouldn't have to write a book report. This was extremely boring.

By the time we got to doing Fiction writing I hated writing all together. But by than we didn't have to write book reports as much so I was easily blowing through any and all books in my schools little library. But then when I was in 6th grade we got a new Humanities teacher. Not only did she help me catch up on Social Studies but she opened a whole new realm of living for my entire class when she gave us an assignment like we had never faced before; write a story. Those were the only guidelines she gave us!

Armed with legal pads and new pencils we waddled like toddlers into a world we didn't know existed. That day happened to be a fundraiser, for what I don't remember, but it was a day where for a dollar you could bring in a stuffed animal and carry it around with you. I happened to have brought in my stuffed bear Benjamin, and so he became the protagonist of my story. (I was 11 mind you!)

I still have that legal pad in my desk and can't look at it without cringing but one day I plan to rewrite that messy story that at the moment has no real plot. 

I owe it all to her.