the day i became a writer.

Yeah, I'm that girl. But not that girl in a too hot and she knows it kind of way. More like the roll your eyes when she corrects your pronunciation of a word for the 73rd time kind of way.

The one who’s proudest achievement is winning her 5th grade spelling bee. Who finds the one typo in the 482 page novel she’s reading. The one who corrects her friends’ grammar while they’re texting and then turns around to break grammar rules because mine was on purpose! 

Yeah, that girl.

Looking back now, it all makes sense that I would end up here, aspiring to write for a living.

But it wasn’t always that way.

I took a class in college called Confidence. Pretty self-explanatory, but the class was designed to help you practice vulnerability as the source of true, lasting confidence in yourself. It was hard enough to be vulnerable in front of your classmates (who then turned around and did the exact same thing). But one day, our beloved professor, Derek Brandow, announced that he would be bringing in guests to host mock-interviews. And that when he said guests, he was talking about real life professionals who have made it big in the ad world.

As an aspiring art director, I got to work on designing a bold, colorful resume that was sure to stand out and be an attention catcher! I showed up to class that day fully prepared to be mock interviewing for a mock art director position. As I began the interview remember introducing myself to Doug Zanger and Talia Bootz. (Two writers, conveniently enough.) Honestly, I blacked out for most of the interview, as I usually do when I’m extremely nervous.

When I finally made it to the last question, I believe it was Doug who said, “Okay, we have one last question for you. Why don’t you want to be a copywriter?”

I was all, “What do you mean ‘Why don’t I want to be a copywriter?’ Because I want to be an art director!”

To which they proceeded to tell me that yeah, I may be artistic and creative and have ~vision~ but I’m simply a copywriter that’s artistic and creative and has vision. (News Flash: Most copywriters do.) They pointed out that every word on my mediocre green resume was basically yelling “I’M A COPYWRITER!!”

I thought I was supposed to leave them speechless. Not the other way around!!

I remember Derek calling me after the interview and I’m pretty sure all he said was, “Wowww”. Then silence. I had no words in my mouth until I started talking. “HOLY CRAP WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED OHMYGOSH DID THEY JUST CHANGE THE COURSE OF MY CAREER AND ALSO MY WHOLE LIFE???!?”

Spoiler alert: They did.

So, yeah. That was the day I became a writer.

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