“I want to be a writer.”

For years I had a dream of becoming an author. As a child I wrote stories and bound them into books. My mother had kept two of them and I remember clearly how much I loved writing even when I was young.

As I grew up I followed the script that had been written for me. I was raised to believe that the answer to having a good life was to go to college, get a good job, get married and have kids. Honestly, it didn’t even occur to me that there was another way.

I went to college at the state university, working to support myself financially and taking out loans to pay for tuition. I have always been fortunate that school was easy for me so I didn’t have to work too hard to get good grades. After I graduated I started…