Melissa Sak

One of my favorite songs tells us that “who we are and who we want to be is not the same all the time.” Masculine or feminine, young and playful versus mature and responsible, loud and boisterous or retiring and private, all of these tenets reside within me. When I am in the throes of encompassing one nature, I crave for the taste of freedom that the other would provide. As I take pen to paper to write a new story, I lose myself in the fantasy world that I am creating, but I always draw from my own life experiences as well. A character, special place, or event will have inevitably sprung from something or someone who takes precedence in my own life.

During a difficult period in my life, I found solace in writing. Story after story, the bad with the good, flew from my mind to my page. I began writing fanfiction, then moved on to original works. After completing the National Novel Writing Contest in November of last year, I went on to publish my first novel, Turning Point. This December, I will be graduating from Montclair State University with a Master’s Degree in Education and plan to commence my teaching career. I can’t wait for the opportunity to create a classroom environment where I can show the students the fun side of literature, math, or even home economics. I want to be that teacher that wears the sombrero in class, while NOT teaching Spanish. I know how important education is to me, and I feel that my main job as a teacher is to give students that same message. However, I don’t feel it is fair to them to bore them to tears while doing so. As a very wise professor once said about teaching, “You won’t remember what you learned in this class, but you will remember me”.

I strongly believe that “Imagination and fiction make up more than three quarters of our real life”. We all thrive on diversity. It’s what makes the world go ‘round. We all have our stories to share.