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Ashleigh's Story

January 28th, 2008 by Ashleigh

Ever since I was very young, I've loved stories. Stories about princesses and dragons, magic and fairy tales, animals and inanimate objects with feelings and thoughts; these stories were always the best part of my day as a young child and I spent more hours curled up with a book in a comfy corner of the school library than playing with the other children. Many of my teachers told me my enthusiasm for reading was wonderful, but that I needed to socialize with the other students more. I never understood why. I still don't, actually.

When I was one year old, my mother started teaching me how to read and I caught on quickly. When I entered into junior kindergarten, I began to read my first chapter book. I was very excited about that and considered myself a "big girl" because I was reading books without pictures and all my classmates were just learning how to read at all. Now, I reflect back and think that I was merely lucky to have a mother who knew that it is never too early to start teaching your children, but back then as a little girl, I thought myself quite important and special.

I grew to nurture a closer bond with my book collection and the school library than I did with the other students. This didn't change as I got older. I won't pretend that I wasn't lonely, because I was, but the books were always there to comfort me when I needed them, whereas people generally weren't. I still remember reading Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in grade four and sobbing with heartache for this poor, misunderstood creature who was brought into this world without being asked and then shunned by all, even his own creator. I remember weeping for days over fiery, spirited Ginger's death in Anna Sewell's Black Beauty and the terrible abuses that horse suffered throughout his life. I remember laughing at Ron Weasley's silly antics in the Harry Potter books and chewing my lip nervously with my heart pounding loudly as I read about Eragon's adventures with his mighty dragon, Saphira in Christopher Paolini's Inheritance quartet.

I believe that reading offers an escape from the real world into a new world of the author's choosing. We experience things we never would in our mundane lives while walking through the pages of a captivating novel. Likewise, I believe that writing offers a way for us to create our own worlds where we are whoever we imagine and where our only limit is our imagination.

That is why I write. I write to push limits. I write to explore places I never would be able to otherwise. I write to discover more about myself through the characters I create and breathe life into. I write to make a point. I write to mold the entire world between my fingertips and shape it however I please. I write to evoke emotion in others. I write to settle my thoughts and fire up my creativity, but most of all,

I write because it's fun.

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