For most of my life, I kept it hidden that I had this hobby of writing poetry. Now that the cat’s out of the bag, some people have asked me how I got started. Honestly, I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t rhyming words together or creating a short story. One of my earliest memories is a story I wrote called “Nobody listens to Kris”. In my family, I was the youngest and would often (like all the time!) get interrupted by someone when I would try to talk. So one day, out of frustration, I took pencil to paper and wrote a story about a little girl who tried to warn the town of some impending doom, but they all ignored her (sounds a lot like the story of Chicken Little…perhaps my inspiration?). As it turned out, in the story the bad thing did happen to the town, and from that day on they all listened to the little girl. A lesson was learned by the townspeople that the little girl had important things to say.

Well in real life, my family still interrupted me after that, but I learned a lesson when I read this story to my family. If I said I have something to say, inevitably someone would interrupt. But if I wrote it down and said that I have a story or poem to read, everyone listened. So it was there that I found my voice. My parents would always find the time to listen to one of my new poems, and that encouragement (and let’s face it…the attention I got) kept me writing more and more. As I got older the poems became more personal based on life experiences or the heartbreak of young love. Most of these made it into my first book, “Walk Through a Field of Flowers”. After a long hiatus from writing, I am so thrilled and grateful to be back at it again.

So that is how I got started writing. Do you have a talent that you’ve kept hidden? If so, don’t hide it from the world! Everyone can benefit from what you have to offer, so don’t be shy…let it out!