Hello, my name is Harmeet and I’m an on and off writer. I want to zone in on my abilities and I think this half marathon is a great start. I started writing stories and poetry since I was about ten years old. During middle school my English teacher had us write a variety of poems and we read them aloud to other students. This really sparked my interest in writing and expressing myself in a positive way. I was also very much like a caterpillar stuck in her cocoon during my early stages of life, so speaking in front of the class was pretty terrifying for me. As I moved through high school both writing and playing the saxophone in the school’s concert band helped me crack parts of that hardened cocoon of mine. Senior year was the most helpful in my writing journey. I had an English teacher who taught us about a variety of authors with the theme of life’s struggles, which was very relevant to the potential struggles we would have in our very near future. It again reignited my love of writing. Finally I hit college, and I took my English courses very seriously. Last year I found a scholarship for writing poetry and I gave it a shot. I posted the video of me speaking my poem “Optimism of the Future” and I really didn’t think much of it, but once my friends and few professors saw it they encouraged me to increase my skills. I will leave the link here if you are interested in watching it. https://youtu.be/g9ELrOeZASs