How I Chose to Become a Writer.

     When I was very young, I dreamed of becoming a movie star. To appear in films is just amazing. Who wouldn't want that? But as I grew up, when I was at the age of six, my perspective changed. At that time, I wanted to become an artist. To paint exquisite and remarkable pictures and to become as renown as Leonardo da Vinci, Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, and many more artists out there are my belief of my success and destination. I love painting back then. I remember the time when I painted pictures of fishes, the flags of the United Nations (even though the flag I find simplest to draw is of Japan and my American Flag had only ten stars on it), pictures of sunsets at sea, houses, and mountains and trees. My mom had me enrolled in an art school so that I can learn to paint and draw more beautifully.  I had fun in drawing though. Coloring, shading, and painting are my hobbies back then and I find it comfortable and relieving in my own little way. But over the course of time, at the age of nine, unbelievably, I dreamed of becoming a singer. I started to love music. Not that I'm musically inclined to any musical instruments though. I just thought of using my voice for a different purpose. Singing is actually fun. I remember the moments where I used to sing songs of Josh Groban, Westlife, Celine Dion, and Michael Buble, The A-teens, Christina Aguilera, Kelly Clarkson, and many more famous artists at that time. I even did a duet with my best friend in our school competition and fortunately, we got second place. That was the time when I became a fan of Pop Idol, American Idol, World Idol, and those hit singing competitions back then. Believe me, I considered it the first "Golden Era" of my life. I made wonderful new friends in our school choir and did good not only in the field of academics but in the extracurricular activities as well.

     When I reached the age of puberty, I was twelve at that time, everything changed. My physical body changed, my point-of-view changed, even my voice changed. I suddenly lost my passion of singing. Although it's not a bad way though. I even thought of it as a good thing. Because by then, I was introduced to a new field. That is literature. I guess it all started with a movie. It was The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. Way back when I was a child, I am so interested in mythical and magical creatures like fauns, centaurs, fairies, talking animals, and fairy tales. I think it was because of the bedtime stories my mom and dad used to read to me every night or the major influence Disney films brought me that made me love fantasy and fiction stories. Now, about The Chronicles of Narnia, I got so interested in it not only because of its characters, but because of the plot itself. C.S. Lewis is a blessed genius for those ideas. It's of a Christian allegorical fantasy type of story. It's just unique in its way. When I watched the film for the first time, I got goosebumps way to the end of it and I cried during that part when the White Witch killed Aslan as he offered himself to die for Edmund's place and also during the part where Aslan rose from his death and bested the Witch's curse which turned all the good characters triumphant in the end. The story is amazing and fantastic! After watching the film, I learned that it is based on a book. So, I decided to buy the book and read it myself. I read the book like I was watching the film. Still having goosebumps in a good way from start to finish. Then I decided to buy all the books of the series. Those were The Magician's Nephew, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, The Horse and His Boy, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, and The Last Battle. My most favorite book in the series is probably The Silver Chair. But I won't spoil it to you because I suggest you to read the book yourself. It's fun! That was the time when I got interested in reading. From then on, I started reading not only The Chronicles of Narnia but many fantasy books as well. I've read J.R.R Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Silmarillion, Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy, Christopher Paolini's The Inheritance Cycle, Ursula K. Le Guin's The Wizard of Earthsea, and many more. There are countless books I've read and it still is ongoing. The list is just infinite. This was the time when I decided to become a writer. I was inspired by the masterpieces of literature and the products of it. From then on, I chose to become a writer.

     My dream and ambition henceforth is to become a published author. Although I still have to gather more ideas and create my own, I'm practicing to become a successful one. I want to be part of literature. I want to produce my own style and show do something for the world through the field of literature. As of now, although I still have the fantasy genre on top of my list of genres, in terms of reading, my type broadened. I'm reading Young Adult Fiction, Romance Novels by Nicholas Sparks (God bless that man for being so passionate and for knowing how to touch and tickle a person's heart), Thrillers by Dan Brown, and some inspiring books by Paolo Coelho. Someday, I hope to be one of them and I'm going to make that happen.

- Angelo Lorenzo