During my past 14 years as a student, I have struggled with my writing. I would try with all my might to write these amazing papers, but I would never see the payoff with my grades. I was placed in the second-to-lowest English class from fourth through eighth grades. Writing and I had a love/hate relationship. I realized that no matter how much time I put into a paper, I had to be passionate about the topic. In sixth grade, I was assigned to write a paper using personification, so I obviously I chose to write from the point of view of Chad Michael Murray’s muscles. The paper highlighted my sarcastic vernacular and I was able to utilize my humor. It was my one hit-wonder of my education because, let’s face it, Chad Michael Murray was a passion of mine (still might be). It was my first and only A on a paper. For the rest of my education, I was stuck in a slump of bad paper grades.

All that changed when I started working with Get Smart Mentoring. I am not going to lie; when Steph told me I would have to write two articles a month, I panicked. How was the girl who could barely formulate two sentences write articles that would be published? But there was a difference between school and Get Smart: I was free to write about anything in which I was passionate. This was my Carrie Bradshaw moment. I had a million topics I wanted to write about that were close to my heart. I wrote my first piece discussing how being independent in my first apartment was like being Cinderella. I asked my parents to review the article expecting the usual million edits. I was very comfortable with the color red all over my paper, but that did not happen with this article. For the first time in forever, I had minimal edits with amazing positive feedback.

From the day I started writing for Get Smart Mentoring, something changed in me. I was writing better than I ever had before. Being passionate about the topic I was writing was key. Writing became so fun and therapeutic because Get Smart Mentoring gave me the chance of a lifetime. Without the opportunity Get Smart has given me, I wouldn’t be where I am today: I am an intern for the internal communications team of a corporate company who writes article for the internal website. If you told me ten years ago that writing would be an integral part of my career path, I probably would have thought you were joking. I have grown so much since being a part of this organization, and it has helped me go to amazing places. Thank you Get Smart Mentoring for allowing me to find my true calling.