Writing has been a coping mechanism for me ever since middle school. It was a way for me to explore my anxieties without being a burden to anyone around me. No one to burden. No one to tell me that I was overthinking just because I spoke of uncomfortable realities.

I came of age in time of the Columbine shooting and 9 / 11, raising myself in a world that felt too dangerous.

My parents had their own issues. They were not able to break all the cycles of trauma they’d endured.

Life was complicated.

Hell. It still is.

I didn’t know it when I first started daydreaming, but my short action adventure stories were one of my first steps toward learning an important lesson.

There is power in all of us…if we are only brave enough to see it.