Make it
My love of writing started at an early age, and I was barely in middle school when I penned my first story. It was a sequel to my favorite video game at the time called Final Fantasy II in the US and Final Fantasy IV in Japan.
By the sixth grade, I could barely put the pencil down, and I definitely spent more time on my stories than on schoolwork. But by the eighth grade, I had generated such a quantity of pages that my school, Thomas Prince in Princeton, MA, had them bound into a book. The local library hosted a book signing for the launch of The Hedges and Other Twisted Tales. While it might not have been available nationwide, the library’s copy was well-used for many years.
After graduation, I attended Assumption College, now University, in Worcester, MA. By the end of my first semester, I had fallen in love with Philosophy and made that my four-year focus. Officially, I double majored in Philosophy and Political Science while double minoring in Computer Science and the Foundations of Western Civilization. I spent much of that time focused on my studies, and when I did write, they were on headier topics like Ethics and Metaphysics.
After I finished school, I moved to Maryland for four odd years, where I began working for Starbucks. I’d always liked coffee, and the role of barista fit me well. I wrote a short novella about the mall I worked in and the confusing life of retail employees. It was a wild period in my life that I wouldn’t exchange for anything.
Returning to Massachusetts, I followed my father into the steam engineering field. In time, I’d earn the third-highest license ranking in the state. During those long 12-hour night shifts in biotech facilities, hospital boiler rooms, and a decrepit papermill, I began writing again. I penned several short stories in the fantasy and science fiction genres. Submitting to prominent magazines like Weird Tales and Fantasy Magazine, I waited impatiently for those self-address-stamped envelopes to return in the mail. I met with little success, but I realized that loving writing wasn’t enough; I needed to learn about writing.
Unfortunately, before I could pursue further education, I suffered serious health issues and had to leave the engineering field. Disabled and out of work, I continued writing, but my focus had shifted. Going back to my college days, I used my knowledge of philosophy to begin questioning the pain I felt. What was the nature of pain? Could it be divided into categories? Was there some form of good behind the veneer of sensation? I thought that if I understood pain, I could somehow assuage my own.
I entered the hospital at the beginning of 2018 for simple day surgery. Due to complications after the fact, I spent months recovering in different facilities until returning home in the fall. It was time to make a decision. Coming so close to my own mortality made me rethink my life. What did I really want to do? What did I really love? And, of course, the answer was writing.
I launched a campaign of self-education. I took online courses and studied classic texts. Then, in 2021, I began an MFA program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Over my five semesters in the program, I had the opportunity to learn under some amazing people, writers, and mentors. Finally, I was able to combine passion with skill, becoming the writer I am today. I seek to combine my love of philosophy and my devotion to writing to reveal truth through stories about the human experience.
