"Words, Words, Words" (Or: Quotes, Authors, and Inspiration)

If I'm remembering correctly, I first learned to read when I was four. I'm sure this has something to do with the fact that my mother was an English Major/professor. In any case, for as long as I remember I have loved stories, and words, and worlds, and characters...and that list could go on and on.  I spent much of my formative years with my nose buried in a book. This all seemed to come to a head in third grade when I first read a book called Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone*. This isn't to say my reading habits peaked in third grade. On the contrary, my passion for reading only grew, to the point where my third grader-self made a declaration of intent to become an author someday.  While my ideas for "what I want to be when I grow up" have changed in terms of what I want to do to earn money, I have always dreamt of being published, and I have always, in some part, attributed that to my love of Harry Potter, and the ability of one woman to capture my imagination so fully.  This paragraph makes for a decent paraphrasing of my college essay. Needless to say, I'm a bit obsessed with Harry Potter. (Would you believe me if I said it was a healthy obsession? I could be so much worse...)

The First Seeing

Over the years I have tried my hand, multiple times, at keeping journals and blogs, and have invariably failed at it.  I can be a bit of a procrastinator, especially when the only thing motivating me is my own sense of accomplishment/fulfillment (yet somehow I still managed to win NaNoWriMo last year). This is why I have various stories and poems lying about in various notebooks and electronic folders in various stages of completion.  However, I thought I might try one last attempt at running a blog.  After all, I’ve got a lot to say.

I figure I might as well properly introduce myself. My name is Rebecca, and I’m currently seventeen years old. I’m going to Smith College next school year--an all women’s school in Northampton, MA--and am outrageously excited for it.

I’m black. I’m bi. I’m a feminist. I’m a nerd(fighter). And I’m sure that all of those will have significant relevance throughout my posts. I’m opinionated. I can be loud. I will frequently go off on long and impassioned (read: loud, possibly incomprehensible) rants when the world pisses me off. Or ramble in a similar manner about things that fill me with glee.

I love to read (YA [John Green, Maureen Johnson, David Levithan, Libba Bray], classic [The Great Gatsby, Catcher in the Rye, Pride and Prejudice], fantasy [Harry Potter], mystery [Poe, Nancy Drew], nonfiction [history, memoir, sociology, biography], poetry [Plath, Dickinson, Whitman], short stories [Poe again, Chekhov], dystopian/utopian [Hunger Games, The Giver, Brave New World]), write (fantasy, poetry, short stories, romance), watch sci-fi/fantasy shows (Doctor Who, Merlin, Torchwood, Supernatural, A:TLA, Firefly, Dollhouse), learn about random parts of history (French Revolution, Tudor England), get involved with social justice, anything British (apparently I'm a bit of an Anglophile), help people, be pedantic...

I hate bigotry, ignorance, intentional cruelty (not that I’m a fan of unintentional cruelty either), dishonesty, corruption, stereotypes, the misuse of language...

And so, I’ll probably talk about all of these things. And more. And hopefully manage to marginally entertain/inform people along the way. I don’t have any big plans for this blog at this point. I want to have a place to talk about what interests me, what frustrates me, and just life in general. Plus, writing helps me organize my thoughts--and discussion helps to add nuance and understanding (and even change, in extreme circumstances) to my opinions.

~Au Revoir