My Little Pearl by Hailey

My Little Pearl by Hailey - May 2017 Scholarship Essay

Have you ever loved something so much that it is all you can think about? It takes control of all of the square inches of your mind until you have no other choice but to spend every waking minute of the day thinking about it. That’s how I feel about Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater. Now, I know that it is not some extraordinary, classical book that is read in every high school English class across America. In fact, most people that I talk to have not even heard of it. This is one of the reasons that I treasure the book so much. It is a rarity, my little pearl in the clam in the deep, great literary ocean.
It all started with the first time I read the book. Once I closed the frosty blue cover and set it down on my bookshelf, I was speechless. I fondly remember going to the store with my mom immediately after, she kept asking me questions about what I wanted and I had no answer. I couldn’t talk. I was so invested in Shiver that all I could do was process what I had just read and how it would affect my life, years after reading it. After about a week of silence, I decided to start a fan fiction, a fictionalized story containing the original characters created by the author but also containing work from myself, about the book. It was embarrassing to admit that I was writing a story about another story but I eventually learned to embrace it. This is what started me on the road to where I am today.
After reading the book, I knew that I wanted to be a writer, if I could write something only halfway decent as Shiver than I would consider myself accomplished. I wrote about everything that I could. I wrote about people living with diseases, I wrote about people living in futuristic worlds, I even wrote about food, describing each flavor and the texture of every bite. From that day forward, I too every writing class that I could, creative writing, writing about film, screenwriting, and many more. I had a thirst for words and a thirst for writing them down. I hadn’t discovered this yearning until after I read Shiver, and now that I had started this need, I couldn’t stop.
A few years after the book was published, I learned that it was being optioned to become a movie. I shrieked in excitement. My favorite book was about to be portrayed on the big screen, how could I not be overjoyed? However, the deal was dropped soon after and I was disappointed to discover that it would not, in fact, become a movie. Now, I had a new goal in mind, I was going to somehow, someway, make Shiver into a movie. I needed others to experience what I had felt reading the book. I needed people to feel the anticipation at the beginning, the adventure in the middle, the pain and eventual joy in the end. I needed my friends to see the magic of the book, the reason that I became who I am today. I now knew that I wanted to work in the film industry.
Without this book, a flame never would have sparked inside of me, telling me to start writing. That flame never would have grown into a fire, raging deep within me, never threatened to be put out. I never would have learned the simple beauty in words, the beauty in creating a version of the world other than your own and sharing that world with others. I never would have been able to accomplish all that I have without this piece of work. Today, I am at Chapman University studying Screenwriting. I can honestly say that I am here due to Shiver. I want to inspire others to accomplish their dreams and change the world through my films. Although I would still love to see Shiver become a film someday, I hope to create my own work that can impact others in the same way that Shiver impacted me.