It was a little over ten years ago, in my bedroom with a black and white composition notebook and a wooden pencil when I wrote my first “book”. It wasn’t your average book,however, it was a scary story that I completely made up from start to finish. As a child, one of the many things that interested me the most was scary stories and horror movies. During my elementary school days, I can remember vividly searching through the horror/mystery genres in book fairs, not only because these were the only books I was interested in, it was because these were the only one that left me on the edge of my seat every time I read one. Not to mention I was the only child until the age 9, so being my fathers only kid led me to watch all his favorite horror flicks with him. With an interest of scary stories and having a father that loves horror movies as much as you do, it wasn’t too long after that for me to develop the idea to create my own “horror story”. The story I made was about this girl that triggered a parallel universe that had immortal people/creatures in it, back then I obviously had a completely different idea of ‘scary’ than I do now. However , with the knowledge I had based on all the movies I watched and the stories I’ve read, it was the most detailed piece of writing I’ve ever done. Not only was this the first time I was writing something outside of school and on my own, but it was also the first writing I was technically invested and fascinated in. I spent every possible chance and free time I had to adding, revising, and sketching in that book, and ironically till this day it does not have a title. Thinking back the most difficult part was keeping track of the different characters dialogue, making sure nothing was repeated and simply if it made sense. I remember being so frustrated at times because I wouldn’t know how to get the thoughts I had into words, I felt as if there was so many words I had missed out on that was preventing me to fully express myself, or I had “writer’s block” and just had a moment of loss creativity. But something I can never forget is my parents support and every time a moment like that happened they never took “giving up” as an answer.
Writing this book resulted in many things such as putting more meaning into my writing in and outside of school. I realized during this process that my vocabulary needed to improve and because of this I then started to engage more in learning different words and the use of them, thus improving my overall writing style. Furthermore it expanded my reading interest and made me more aware of the other genres to read from. However this influenced more than just my reading and writing but my passion for art and the major i’m deciding on today. Concurrently to writing my ‘horror story’ my grandmother would teach me how to sketch different things around the house and different animals. I will also frequently do that on my spare time, and still do today, even incorporated some sketches in my ‘book’and I eventually gotten better. Over the years I continued sketching and drawing and later developed a hobby doing sfx makeup. For those who don’t know what that is, SFX stands for special effect makeup, also known as prosthetic makeup, which involves using prosthetic sculpting, molding and techniques to create advanced cosmetic effects. It wasn’t until then I felt as if my drawings were coming to life. Developing this hobby came from watching the ‘behind the scenes’ of horror movies I’ve watched. By this time I was sketching out pieces I wanted to recreated using prosthetic makeup. I hit a moment of realization , and I knew I wanted to study what I loved doing the most, so when applying for college came around, picking a major wasn’t hard at all. Although i’m still deciding whether majoring in architecture or graphic design will put me on the path I want, I know I want to be in a field where i’m utilizing my passion for art. Ironically this ‘horror’ story I wrote had so many benefits that came out of it that made MY ending better than it’s own. This experience did not only impacted my writing and interest in reading but it gave me so many ideas on what I want to do in the future.
