As readers and writers, we all start out with a certain affinity to various styles of reading and writing depending on what is presented to us at an early age. Luckily for me, I was fortunate enough to even learn to read and write as a child, seeing as how many adults around the world still do not have that luxury today. Nonetheless, when I was a young girl, my parents provided me with my first picture storybooks and journals, which I believe shaped my love for creative writing. Through imaginative styles like journaling, poem reading and blogging, this is where my reading and writing strengths developed and showed prominence throughout my life.
My very first experiences with writing began with three words: "the new kid". When I was five or six years old, my family and I moved from Saint Louis, Missouri to Leawood, Kansas just before I was about to start Kindergarten. I left behind some of my very first and dearest friends, my birth house and everything I had ever known for a brand new state and an entirely new community of people. During this unfamiliar and strange time in my life, my mom wanted me to have some kind of way to express my thoughts and feelings about the move. One day after school, I came home to a little pink diary sitting on the kitchen counter. It had a gold lock and two little puppies peering at me with a big caption across the front that said "Paws Off!" I couldn't wipe the smile off my face for a week after getting that little diary. Everyday after .
school, I broke out my favorite box of crayons and went to town scribbling and practicing writing letters, words and simple sentences that I learned in class. I would then read every page in that diary word for word to my mom and she made me feel like I was the smartest kid in the whole world. I believe my most distinguished source of encouragement to read and write came from my mother and her love for books and learning.
