Accomplish Life Long Goal - Check

Ever since I was a little kid I have dreamt of being published. I began writing poetry at age six, since my allowance was tied to my father's ingenious decision that not only did all the chores have to be completed, but at least one poem had to be written each week for payment. I began writing my first novel when I was ten. I completed it by fifteen (considering only what I thought "complete" was at that age) and began writing short stories.

By the time I entered high school I was writing decent analytical essays, some of my best and most memorable poetry, and a few short stories that received peer as well as mentor praise. At the end of high school it was no surprise to anyone that I achieved a 5 on the English AP with three succinctly written, well-composed, efficient little essays with my favorite being an in-depth analysis of Conrad's "Heart of Darkness."

In college, my curriculum was geared towards Physics and left little room for prose, so I spent my free hours on my second novel, expanding my poetry, and writing a veritable collection of short stories for my own edification. Upon graduation, I continued the completion of the second novel, including three painstaking edits that ultimately reduced me to mush, but which produced a story that seemed, at the time, readable. In the bounding confidence of youth and euphoric sense of completion, I submitted the novel to a publisher sans agent. They did not care for it.

No worries. I fished the "completed" (again a misrepresentation for the thoughts of the time) novel out to family and friends for a read and got some excellent notes to work from, ultimately leading to the scrapping of the first attempt and the "Page 1 rewrite" approach to reviving my idea.

Lately I have been writing a great deal, but not as much for the novel, stories, or poetry, but rather rehashing the analytical writer in me for the sake of Scholarship Applications.

Well, it finally paid off... sort of. I have made it to round two of one of the competitions and the award for making it in the top 98 percentile is to have your essay published. As small a gesture as this may seem, it is none-the-less a life long dream to have something, anything of mine in print. And so it shall be in several months time. 750 precisely manifested, perfectly punctuated, and elegantly efficient words of mine will be in print.

I am still in the running for the scholarship money, of course, which was the goal in the first place. Keep in mind I haven't been paid for my writing since my allowance ceased to be tied to my creative endeavors when I was approximately ten.