Gabriella DeConti

Everyone has dreamed about someplace they've never been before. When I was little, every story I wrote centered around the Amazon rainforest. I loved talking about it as if I had been a thousand times when the truth was, I had never been then and I still have never been now. My writing evolved with age, but its scenery still focused on nature. I grew up constantly wanting to surround myself with trees, mountains, streams, oceans, animals. This influenced my decision to go to college in Maine and to study the environment in an academic setting, as well. My favorite children's book taught me my most valuable lesson at a very young age. Miss Rumphius teaches children they should "try to make the world more beautiful", so if you ever see me living in coastal Maine as an elderly lady spreading lupine seeds you'll know why. I would like to use the Odyssey as my own way to spread my words and inspire people to create their own kind of beautiful for the world we see around us everyday.