Growing up, I was raised on the idea that if you dream big and you work hard absolutely anything is possible. I have lived my entire life by that philosophy and, as a soon-to-be college graduate, it is so surreal to look back on the ways I have turned that concept into reality. 

​

When I was eighteen years old, I reached a similar turning point. I was about to graduate high school, had already decided where I was going to college, and found myself at the culmination of another dream. I was part of an international business and marketing competition known as DECA, where students around the globe create business projects of different varieties to submit for judging. There were three stages of the competition: districts, states, and finally the International Career Development Conference (known to us DECA kids as ICDC). 

​

Getting to ICDC and winning one of the practically mythic glass trophies became my obsession for my last two years of high school. I spent every second I possibly could working on my project and threw absolutely all I had into making it a success. Every eyelash on my cheek, every penny found heads up, each 11:11 on the clock, each birthday, every coin tossed in a fountain, and every long night I looked up and saw a certain evening star beaming down at me. It all became a wish. One wish. I'd close my eyes, scrunch up my nose, and let that dream flow through me. I could do this. I would do this.

​

In May of 2018, at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, I placed second internationally in my category. Walking off that stage with a glass trophy in my hands and hearing the roar of my peers behind me is something I will never, ever forget. The next day, I was walking through the park next to our hotel when I passed a fountain filled with coins. I reached into my pocket, pulled out a penny, and closed my eyes to make my wish. I repeated the same dream I'd had stuck in my head for the last two years when it suddenly hit me. I had to find something new to wish for. 

​

I will never forget that moment. The moment I got to take a deep breath, set a new goal, and take the very first step towards it with an open mind and an open heart. And as I am about to turn the page on yet another milestone, another dream, I can't help but smile at that memory of my eighteen-year-old self. I'm not sure even she could've imagined what we'd accomplish over the next five years. 

​

It is this spirit, this hope and imagination, that I carry into my writing. I want to tell stories that inspire, connect, and bring a bit of magic into the everyday. 

 

I am many things. I am a writer, an artist, a dreamer, but above all, I am a storyteller. I want to continue to share my imagination with others and tell meaningful, important stories for the rest of my life :)