Baer's Golden Age

Fall is over, but its never to late to enjoy a beautiful picture

I am back from my week long hiatus of finals and a crazy teacher. After my week I realize that I've now been writing for almost 10 years and I am finally seeing the eve of my Golden Age. A long time ago in the sixth grade I was a reluctant teen not wanting to write like a caveman caught in a cave grasping at sticks. Once I learned how to write, it started a small spark, a desire to try and write. You can't expect to sit down and write a great American novel, you have to start out small and eventually build up to that point. When you start, your short stories aren't going to be brilliant, mine have the consistency of a pictograph on a cave wall. My first story I didn't know anything about how to use quotes, apostrophes, comas, and such. My first teacher Mr. Rasch began to teach me all I know and soon I was on my way to the 7th grade. In the 7th grade I met the eccentric Ms. Villa a woman who had two loves in her life the color violet and Orlando Bloom. She saw that spark, the desire within me and she kindled the small spark into a burgeoning flame. She fed my desire to write taught me how to use quotes correctly and fix my run on sentences. I was afraid, but eager to try and I began my first novel 300 pages of absolute nonsense, but it did have a beginning, middle, and an end with a decent plot. Even though the novel was bland Ms. Villa told me how she loved it and wanted me to keep writing even though I was only beginning. After my year was over Ms. Villa asked me to stay on as her student assistant and in the slow moments she would teach me more. One Christmas she gave me the complete set of the Chronicles of Narnia and I devoured those books one by one learning from C.S. Lewis' writings. Near the end of the 7th during our annual writing tests I met Ms. Nanigan and she explained to me how I had the writing average of a 9th grader. She further encouraged me to keep going, to keep on writing and keep getting better. In the eighth grade I met Ms. Lewis and she knew there was something different about me when I was able to tell her the pantheon of the Greek Gods in one sitting and she further encouraged my writing. I was into musicals at the time and wrote my first lyrical, a terrible musical based on the Bride of Frankenstein. Even though she read it and I'm sure she didn't like it she told me to keep writing no matter how terrible you are because you'll get better. Then at the end of the eighth grade I learned I had autism and I feared that my gift of writing was only an obsession a symptom of my syndrome and not a unique talent. I faced my Dark Age and almost refused to write and then I went into high school and met Ms. Minter the teacher who would become a key figure in my writing career. If not for her I would still be caught in that Dark Age. Even after I gave her a 20 page paper, which she mentioned kept her up grading at night she encouraged me to join Yearbook classes and at first I was reluctant, but than I agreed to sign on. Three years later I became the editor-in-chief. I was afraid I couldn't do it, but I manged to do it quite well and Ms. Minter was confident in me. Her confidence in me helped build my self esteem. With four years of college now I've realize that being a writer is a very hard thing. You work long hours to make it perfect, but no manuscript is perfect. I've realized there are three kind of people who look at your work, there are those who are going to hate your work and feed it to the flames, there are those who will use your work to fan the flames, and then there are those who will pick up your work out of the ashes and dust it off. Now in my Golden Age I am finally getting to point where I am comfortable to share my work no matter if it is rejected or not.