Why I want to be an author when I grow up

I love books. 

I didn't always love books - well, novels, anyway. I loved comic strips, but I'm not sure those qualify. I can't recall exactly what changed, but I guess it traces back to my ninth grade English class. We read The Once and Future King by T.H. White, and I don't know what happened but it stayed with me unlike any book before it. I still have it, actually, back on my bookshelf. 

However, it didn't turn me into an overnight book-lover. I kept reading, but mostly what they told me to read. Still, I'd like to think it planted a seed in me, one that would one day see the light. 

Same class, we read The Catcher in the Rye - loved it as well. I remember thinking that Holden Caulfield was the only person I'd ever met who I really identified with. 

Toward the end of my high school years, I discovered Brandon Sanderson when my parents got me his book Steelheart for Easter one year. I devoured it and, going into college, moved on to his other, more adult works, such as Elantris, Mistborn, and Warbreaker. That last one is still one of my favorite books of his. His stories were unorthodox to me at the time - there wasn't as much fighting as I was expecting. Most of the action took place using words, not weapons. I grew to like that. 

Needless to say, Brandon Sanderson quickly turned into one of my favorite authors. I still intend to collect all of his books one day, even the one that aren't out yet. And more importantly, he caused the seed planted inside of me years ago to bloom gloriously. Books used to be something that I would look for every now and again but never bother with hunting down. Now, I'm actively seeking out new stories to sink my teeth into. I can't imagine any other kind of life. 

I suppose that's a large part of why I want to be an author when I grow up. For a large part of my life I've been batting around ideas of what to do with my life, looking for inspiration but never finding anything that I could imagine dedicating my life to. But this, I wouldn't mind spending my life on - something I'd always spurned when I was just a kid, come back to show me a different path. 

It's still going to be hard. There's a lot of risk I'd be taking on. But even so, that's the direction I want to take my life in. 

And I think that's a pretty big thing.