Day 9: I is for Imagination

   Growing up (who am I kidding? I'm still growing up) I had the best friends and family a little girl could ask for. I had six amazing siblings, and a neighborhood full of kids my age. I was constantly surrounded by loving people. But being an introvert, I had to get away sometimes. People exhausted me. Still do, in fact. It's funny, because I'm such a people person. I love people. But I need my alone time. It was at a very young age that I discovered books were my paradise. 

   I fell in love with fantasy, fairy tales, and adventure stories. How amazing, I thought, that I can hide away in my bedroom and still meet new people and solve crimes and save universes. I took my books very seriously. In all honesty, I think I would be a completely different person if I hadn't discovered my love of reading. Those words and people and stories shaped the person I am today, and the person I will continue to become. 

   Harry made me want to love. Lucy made me want to be kind. Susan made me want to be intelligent. Edmund made me realize that family is more important than anything else. Peter made me want to be brave. Bilbo made me want to go on adventures. Sam made me want to be the best friend anyone could ask for. Eowyn made me want to be strong and beautiful. Taran made me realize that even someone as insignificant as a Pig-Keeper can make a difference. The stories I grew up with will be a part of me forever.

   Of course, it only took me so long to realize that I wanted to be an author. I wanted to write a story that changed someone's life, the same way the books I read changed mine. I wanted to create someone's favorite character. Soon enough, I had new worlds inside my head. I was writing new people into existence. My pen and keyboard were creating letters and words and sentences and paragraphs and pages and stories that I pray will someday make a difference, even if it's only for one person.

              "Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will get you everywhere."