once upon a time...

There was a young girl with a bottomless appetite for adventure and a library card.

She had a few rough years early on, and a few later on, too; but she maintained her starstruck disposition toward life and hoped for better. “There’s got to be more to this,” she’d say. 

Reading became her favorite pastime. It was fun living out other people's adventures in lieu of what lie outside the pages of her books, in her real life.

In the eighth grade, she had this amazing English teacher. She was sweet. She cared. This meant the world to the girl. Soon, the girl realized how powerful the simplest of expressions can be. A brief exchange of mere words, lasting no more than a few seconds, sometimes minutes, could change the whole trajectory of a person’s day– and even life.

And with this realization came another: there really is more to this. 

If words have the power to not only paint vicarious and cathartic scenes as they do in books, to not only inform and enlighten as they do in school, but also the ability to provide lasting, meaningful impact for others through every-day conversation… words must be the most powerful, even magical, device humanity possesses.

Eventually, she put two and two together. If she loved to read, loved to write, and now loved to communicate… this had to be her path in life, right?

She thought about her teacher. If a sole teacher can have that kind of lasting effect on a student, then that’s the career she wanted. Even if all she could do was impact one student in the way she was impacted, it would have been worth it.

Spoiler: things didn’t turn out as planned. The girl grew up to be me. Somehow, this is where life led us. I couldn’t be happier.

I’m doing exactly what little-Sam wanted to do: share my love for language and create meaningful, lasting impact. Sure, it’s not the same way that little-Sam imagined, but it’s everything adult-Sam could’ve ever hoped for and more.

the end