Tiny Books by Alexis

Tiny Books by Alexis - December 2016 Scholarship Essay

When I was in middle school, I decided that I wanted to write. It was probably out of pure boredom from sitting through a monotonous lecture in my English class, or maybe I was inspired by the creative writing prompts we had every morning. I knew I could get a laugh out of my friends, but I didn’t know it would become such an important part of my life.
I took a piece of paper and a few staples and voila! I made a tiny book, and that’s what I called them: Tiny Books. In my all of my years as an aspiring comic writer, this was my best creation yet. At first, I wrote whatever popped into my head. I had a weird mind as a child. The pages weren’t cohesive, and most of the comic appeal would come out of people who found humor in pure shock. I still kept going, though.
I developed my second original character, Bob. He was a stick man with a comically large bowtie and glasses. His hair was curly and unruly. I gave him a personality similar to mine, except more exaggerated. Slowly, more and more characters developed. There was a villain; Bob had friends who all had their own stories outside of being his sidekicks; my first original character, Marvin, was running a side campaign for the presidency. I created an entire world inside of these tiny books.
As the years went by, I got better at writing. My tiny books started having a plot. The books started referring back to each other; it was a real series. I saw my writing improve in my English classes. I loved to write now when before I didn’t see it as a hobby so much as a tool. I could take what I felt and relay it into a story. I started writing poetry. I saw writing as a way to immortalize my thoughts on paper. I could save who I was now, and even when I changed later, a part of my past self would still be there.
The best part of it all, I think, is that I didn’t even know what I was doing when I first started. I learned how to write because I wasn’t afraid to make mistakes along the way. That skill will go with me in college, especially since I want to be an English teacher. I will take chances while embracing failure because I know the outcome. I’ll try to inspire my students to take risks in their endeavors, especially in their writing. I hope, when I become an educator, that I can instill in my students the truth that sometimes the most beautiful successes can come out of failure. If an awkward middle school child can become one of the strongest writers in her journalism class (as said by my teacher herself), then any children I teach have the capability to do so and more.