God Bless You, Lily Gladstone
I started writing stories when I was 11 years old. I loved the process of traveling in my mind to a reality of my own creation, and I dove into it with glee every chance I got. The response, at best, was little notes in the margin of my work in my english class folders every year from semi-supportive teachers. My rural Arkansas school district didn't have creative writing or drama classes, or any kind of theater program when I was growing up. I saw our guidance counselor in the hallways once in awhile, but there was no mentoring of any kind--not for kids like me, anyway. I didn't go to college after high school. Not knowing anything about how the system worked, I was afraid that if I got a student loan, something would happen to it and I would have to move back in with my mom and her husband, defeated. After months of pouring through catalogs from different schools that showed bright adults-in-training enjoying their classes and dorm life, making lifelong friends in the quad, ...