callistahogan: (Default)
callistahogan ([personal profile] callistahogan) wrote2009-10-08 02:35 pm

LJ Idol: Week 0 - Introduction

Compared to most people in this competition, I have had very little life experience. I am a teenager, not yet halfway through my high school career. I have only been outside my home state once and that was when I was much too young to remember it. I have lived a very sheltered Christian life. Most of my time I spend holed up in my room, reading novels, surfing the Web, and contemplating the sad state of the world today.

There is not much I can tell you about my past, because to be honest it is a lot like my present. Sure, I am a little older, a little wiser, but I am still just a girl. I am a girl who is trying to find her place in this world, and a girl who finds it increasingly difficult to do so. I read to escape to a different world -- just as I did at eight or nine, when I read the Harry Potter books for the first time. I write to express myself, to show the parts of myself that I often do not let anyone else see. I yearn to show the world what I have to offer, and to show people that I am so much more than a stereotypical teenager.

I am proud to call myself an Independent. As you will see if you read my journal with any regularity, I used to be a Republican, but after seeing the pointlessness of the whole Republican/Democrat war, being an Independent seemed like the choice to make. That doesn't mean I am not a strong Christian, with strong Christian morals, because I am. It simply means that I prefer to form my own opinions, without worrying what either party is saying. I don't want to feel pigeonholed into believing this is the solution to that, or that this is the only solution to that other thing.

Perhaps the most important thing you need to know about me is that I am a writer.

First and foremost, my goal in life is to be an author. Not necessarily a published author, although that would be nice. I just want people to read something I have written and feel something, whether it be sorrow, joy, or maybe even confusion. If just one person looks at what I've written and is touched by it, then in my mind, writing a hundred stories to get to that one touching moment is worth it. Writing is the way I show people who I am, and without it, I wouldn't be where I am today.

I have been writing since I was about six years old. It suppose it all started in first grade, when I learned to read (or when my teachers first started teaching us how to read, that is; I was probably reading before then). I remember wanting to write, although I wasn't sure how at the time. My first story, which was written in second grade, was entitled "A Sour Skittle Story" and underwent several alterations as time went on. It was never finished, and for a while, writing was on the back burner until I started writing fanfiction. Bam, the passion was back.

That was six years ago.

I have been writing for more than half my life.

Perhaps that's why I entered this competition in the first place. I am a writer who yearns to tell people who I am, and what better way to do that than being in a competition of this magnitude? 

I want to tell people about standing on a picnic table in front of my apartment when I was three or four after my family's washing machine broke. I want to tell people about sleeping in my own room in first grade, with the bugs attached to the window and the cockroach I found on my blanket that one night. I want to tell people about taking speech lessons in third grade, and being disappointed in fourth when my teacher didn't seem to like me. I want to tell people about fifth grade when I met my best friend, and sixth grade when I truly became friends with her. I want to tell people about seventh grade, when I spent a whole month researching creationism and evolution and writing down page after page after page of Internet articles. I want to tell them about my experiences in English classes over the years, and how my teachers have -- in one form or another -- showed me what I have to do to fulfill my dream.

To be honest, I just want to tell people the fact that I am a fifteen-year-old Christian Independent girl who has dreams too big for her heart, and a heart too big for her mind.

[identity profile] teenagewitch.livejournal.com 2009-10-08 07:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Very powerful. I look forward to reading more of your work.

[identity profile] callistahogan.livejournal.com 2009-10-08 07:51 pm (UTC)(link)
:) Thank you!

[identity profile] meee-tooo.livejournal.com 2009-10-08 07:52 pm (UTC)(link)
I find your writing style to be really compelling and I look forward to hearing more from you. :)

[identity profile] libra-dragon.livejournal.com 2009-10-08 08:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Nice entry and introduction. Good luck to you!

[identity profile] baxaphobia.livejournal.com 2009-10-08 08:05 pm (UTC)(link)
This is beautifully written and makes me want to hear your stories! Good luck!

[identity profile] callistahogan.livejournal.com 2009-10-08 08:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Aw, thanks. I really just started writing, and the words just kind of flooded out. :)

I'm looking forward to reading more of your writing as well.

[identity profile] callistahogan.livejournal.com 2009-10-08 08:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you. Good luck to you as well!

[identity profile] callistahogan.livejournal.com 2009-10-08 08:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you! I hope to be able to tell some of my stories as the competition wears on. I like to think I have some good ones. :)

Good luck to you as well!

[identity profile] stormkitty.livejournal.com 2009-10-08 09:36 pm (UTC)(link)
Had you not told me you were a teenager, I wouldn't have been able to tell. :) Best of luck in this season and I can't wait to read more from you!
shadowwolf13: (Default)

[personal profile] shadowwolf13 2009-10-08 09:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Interesting!

Best luck this season. :)

[identity profile] bitterlight.livejournal.com 2009-10-09 12:35 am (UTC)(link)
I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with. Best of luck in the contest.

[identity profile] pricelessone.livejournal.com 2009-10-09 12:46 am (UTC)(link)
To write as well as you do at fifteen is truly an accomplishment. I'm 28 and can honestly tell you that I consider you a peer. If you had not said you were fifteen I would never have guessed.

Also, know that everyone has a story. And that I look forward to reading yours. Best of luck!

[identity profile] callistahogan.livejournal.com 2009-10-09 01:05 am (UTC)(link)
Thanks. You too!

[identity profile] callistahogan.livejournal.com 2009-10-09 01:15 am (UTC)(link)
*blush* Thank you so much. So many times I feel inferior to other writers because I don't have the life experiences other people older than me have, and I am often blinded to the fact that my story is just as good as everyone else's. Mine is simply good in a different way. :)

[identity profile] callistahogan.livejournal.com 2009-10-09 01:17 am (UTC)(link)
Thanks. Good luck to you as well!

[identity profile] callistahogan.livejournal.com 2009-10-09 01:18 am (UTC)(link)
Now is that interesting in a good way or interesting in a bad way? ;)

Good luck to you too!
shadowwolf13: (Default)

[personal profile] shadowwolf13 2009-10-09 02:20 am (UTC)(link)
Always good. :)

[identity profile] twystedpixie.livejournal.com 2009-10-09 06:00 am (UTC)(link)
Your last line reminded me of this quote: "My Mind has been the most discontented and restless one that ever was put into a body too small for it." -John Keats

[identity profile] mstrobel.livejournal.com 2009-10-09 07:01 am (UTC)(link)
Perhaps that's why I entered this competition in the first place. I am a writer who yearns to tell people who I am, and what better way to do that than being in a competition of this magnitude?

Same here. And I love the paragraph that follows that because I understand so well. I want to let people share in all the small details as well. I just want to write everything.

[identity profile] majesticarky.livejournal.com 2009-10-09 07:28 am (UTC)(link)
I was going to write something judgmental, but thinking about it a little more, I think it's good for you to be so politically aware at such a young age. I believe I was 15 when the 2000 election happened. It was such madness. I became more politically aware after that. I considered myself a communist when I was your age, and progressively became more and more "conservative". When I was finally eligible to vote, I didn't even label myself as independent, but "decline to state a political party". Now I just consider myself liberal, but not VERY liberal.

[identity profile] joeymichaels.livejournal.com 2009-10-09 10:50 am (UTC)(link)
You. Rock. So. Hard.

[identity profile] johnmill79.livejournal.com 2009-10-09 01:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Very well written. I wish I wrote like that at 15. I'm not even sure if I write like that now! Enjoy the contest.

[identity profile] ladymako71.livejournal.com 2009-10-09 02:17 pm (UTC)(link)
I fall into the category of 'old enough to be your Mum', and I am delightfully impressed with your writing, having read your introduction! Life experience or not, people can write about anything if they have the mind for it. I tend to have more life experience than the people I work with, in part because I moved a lot as a child.

By the time I was your age, I'd already been to 4 countries and over 20 US states. That doesn't make me a better person, it just means I'm someone who has seen 4 countries and 20+ US states. It is what you do with that, that makes you as a person tick. I've seen people with just as much travel under their belt and they never learned a thing from it.

Anyway...before I start rambling too much. Good luck to you and I can't wait to see more!

[identity profile] onda-bianca.livejournal.com 2009-10-09 03:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Wow, this is awesome. I want to read your stories and look forward to all your entries!

[identity profile] risingtofall.livejournal.com 2009-10-09 05:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Great intro, I can't wait to see more from you!

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