To all the writers...

 This time of year I'm always so sentimental. I have friends graduating, friends getting ready for college, friends coming home from college... All while I sit here equally thrilled and terrified that I have one year left until college myself. Naturally, I've been daydreaming about the days when life consisted of dragons and magical castles, Jedi and lightsabers, cowboys and indians... We had our own league of super heroes too.

I miss that.

I miss the adventures, the complicated missions, the endless imagination that I possessed. I've still got some of it... but it's not the same. Now bothersome things are mixed in – logic and science and a big dollop of hopeless romantic-ness. (Yes, I just invented that word...)

But with all my nostalgia I realized I had it sooooooooooooo lucky. I started writing when I was nine. I started capturing that insane imagination and putting it to paper. And I as got older and missions to the moon of Endor got a little unpractical, I still had my creative outlet! It simply morphed into a new part of me.

At first it was a vague dream. I would think, Oh when I'm 12 I'll finish that book or I”ll be published when I'm sixteen and super old...

Well. Now I'm seventeen and those dreams seem a little silly. But I love that I've never given up.

When I was fourteen I joined a writing group and we became known as the illustrious Y5. I was the little midget mascot. We joked the other day that they didn't even know I could talk until a few months ago. I had friends my age that wrote but these kids were serious. They wrote with discipline and passion and good grammar [insert passionate music sequence here].

They were super cool. They still are. (Don't tell them ;)

I was the youngest member by several years so sometimes it was overwhelming or just plain awe inspiring to have the attention and help of those other four writers.

A couple months ago I jumped into the blogging world and found myself in the same situation. I found friends and got adopted into a few circles... and I was the baby writer. Still am. :)

At first I didn't like it. Sometimes it is a little lonely still but holy cow. I've learned SO much in the last few months. I've grown, won some contests, my writing has changed and here I am now... getting ready to write a totally new story with minimal plot development (bites nails) for JuNoWriMo. And I know that I already have a ton of support. That's a super good feeling, y'all. :)

I decided, before I kill myself writing this new story, I wanted to say thank you. So here it is: To all the brilliant, beautiful, wonderful writers in my life...

Thank you for the comments, the encouragement, the kicks in the pants, the late night meetings, the coffee, the constructive criticism, the listening, the idea sharing, the uncontrollable laughter, the delicious food, the retweets, the Pinterest boards, the general brilliance... You guys rock and I love all of you. I'm so thankful I know you guys.

Much love,

Kenzie