The cynical optimist

There are not nearly enough words to express my gratitude towards you.

 I’ve always been the kid in the corner of the room, reading a book. I had my fair share of friends, but they always had an identity. They loved sports, they loved girls and video games. I loved reading…I had never had a girlfriend, I barely played videos games and sports, though i loved them I never seemed to know enough..and reading for a long time was my solace. 

When it came to writing, I enjoyed it but I always believed I was mediocre at best, I wrote poetry, I wrote silly comics about a flying twinkie and his robot friend saving the universe as well as silly short stories but thats where the love affair ended, I could never BE a writer. 

When I was in 10th grade my english teacher read an essay of mine in front of the class, amazed by what I had written, I used the word Spectrum and he thought it was a god send, I then was forced to write a short story i was supposed to co-write but the day before it was due my partner had done none of the work…so I worked all night and recieved a 98…and i thought to myself maybe writing is what i need to do. 

For the next few years I wrote like i was running out of time, I’d always get 12-15 pages in and just give up, thinking it would never amount to anything, and then I had a question which lead to some light research and conversations with friends, which lead to my first completed manuscript…Its taken me a long time for me to get where I am today…and I still have so much more to go, but every step of the way, those Twitter followers I have, the YAwordnerds youtube community, and even people like Maureen Johnson, who was simply answering a question I had asked, all of this, is because people like that have urged me on, told me to not give up, and through these people I have found myself and become a person I can be proud of…so thank you…Thank you from the quiet kid in the corner, from the nobody who is slowly finding his voice…Thank you from the writer…