Jessica Thompson

It all started when I was born. I didn’t know who I was, where I was, what I was. But then I started to grow. And yes, it took some time, but it happened.

School took up a lot of time for me. Why was I spending so many hours sitting at a desk with pens and paper? And when I got home, I had to sit at a desk with pens and paper. I didn’t get it; education was taking a long time.

Secondary school and the first three years of college were tough for me. I didn’t fit in. I don’t drink. I don’t go out. I don’t pretend to be someone I’m not, and for some reason that stopped people from wanting to be around me. So all I had half the time were pens and paper.

But you know what? I got through it. And somehow pens and paper started to become part of me. I wrote a novel. I wrote poetry. I wrote stories. I wrote articles.

And where am I now? Well, I’m a writer of course. For all my complaining about pens and paper, who would have thought I’d become a journalist?