I have been writing since I was eight. I wrote my first fanfic shortly thereafter. I found it stashed away in my journal. It was a Transformer fanfic. A would be romance between my OC, a female Autobot who transformed into a stealth plane -I think I even named her Stealth, and Hot Rod. I think almost everyone writes a romance for their first fanfic. But for as long as I've been writing, it's only been in the last couple years that I've even started to consider myself a writer.

I believe we all have talents. Some we're born with, others we only gain through experience, hardships, and quite a bit of tempering. I wish I could say writing was a natural talent, but that would be far from the truth. I remember when I read my first story to my family. I think they died from laughing so hard. And it wasn't a comedy.

But you know you really love something when you keep doing it anyway. And I kept trying. In grade nine a friend came over to write her English assignment on my computer. I remember being so jealous, because she really did have a natural talent for writing. I think she's a lawyer now. I remember also my grade ten teacher, Mr. Boba, who spent half an evening with me after school explaining the difference between semicolons, comas, and hyphens, and just about every other bit of punctuation you'd think I'd know by then.

I very rarely got an A on my assignments in English, and I doubt any of my teachers would have thought of me as a writer. But still I kept writing. Mostly I wrote fanfic. Something that has been both a blessing and a curse. Fanfic, like any good tool out there, is a great platform to learn on. It's also a huge addiction. And anyone who's written fanfiction knows exactly what I'm talking about.

But, over the years, I think I can finally say that I've learned how to write. At least the basics. One never really stops learning after all.

As for my natural talents, I discovered that despite my efforts to remain invisible through school, I'm really good at management. So why am I not someone's boss? We should use our natural talent, right? Maybe, maybe not. I did it for ten years and realized it was taking over my life. I'm LDS, and in retail, having Sunday off is not often possible.

In the end it came down to a choice. I chose God. Go figure.

Now I'm learning some new talents, like how to renovate houses, repair leaky roofs, and install sprinkler systems. Eventually I'd like to do a few long term projects and flip a house or two. Turns out I’m rather good at construction.

And in the mean time I'm still writing. Struggling to finish and publish my first book. Got lots of ideas, but I haven’t quite figured out how to push the words from my head to the paper when I want and not when they want. Eventually I'll find a way to make writing more than just something I do in my spare time. In time it’ll be what I do. And well I may not be there yet, I do know one thing, it is who I am.

I'm a writer. What are you?

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