Writing saved my life. A simple sentence but one that literally changed who I am and what I dream of. It's worth repeating, writing saved my life.

Most people read that sentence and think that my life was in a state of disaster. It wasn't. I wasn't depressed. I wasn't dealing with tragedy. I didn't think that my life needed saving.

Life was good and I was happy. As a sophomore in high school, I thought I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to work in the sciences, I wanted to do research, I wanted to save lives. Being a doctor is a noble career, one that I thought would fill my life with meaning. That didn't mean I didn't like writing, though.

For as long as I can remember I have been a dreamer. I am the girl who is constantly staring off into space, daydreaming of faraway worlds and impossible situations. Reading has always been my way of escaping from the world and writing was a coping mechanism, something I did purely for fun.

Yet, as a freshman starting school in a new state, without any friends, I needed to find a way to meet people. So, I started a writing club. Every week I would meet with other lovers of literature and write, everything from short stories to poetry. I thought writing in that capacity would satisfy my creativity, but that nothing would ever come of it. All my pieces remained short and most of them unfinished.

Then I wrote my first novel. I didn't wake up thinking that I was going to write a novel. I didn't dream of an amazing plot that would change the world when I wrote it. I simply went to school, like any other day. A friend told me about a writing competition that would change how I saw the world, I just didn't know it at the time.

On November 1, 2013, I sat down and started writing my first novel as a part of an international writing competition called National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo.

The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel in the 30 days that comprise the month of November. Until that point, the most I had ever written was about 6,000 words. Why on Earth did I think that I would be able to write an entire novel?

I went into the month thinking that it would be a good challenge, but one that I probably wasn't going to complete. Yes, I had spent all of October and even some of September filling a notebook with chapter outlines, character breakdowns, and every detail I thought I would need to write a full-length novel, but I still wasn't confident. On the very last day of November, I hit the 50,000 mark in the car, driving home from a cruise. I remember sitting in the backseat staring at my computer screen, incredulous that I had actually done it. Yet my novel was far from complete. In the coming months, I finished the novel, and it came out to 86,965 words.

So how did writing a novel save my life? Simple, it put me on my current path, it gave me a dream, it filled my life with meaning in a way nothing else ever had. Today I am an English major instead of a Biology major. Writing opened up the door to my passion. I had never felt more proud in the moment when I typed the final word of my novel. I had never felt more fearless or surer of what I wanted to do with my life. While I still love science, English holds my heart. Writing is the reason I get up in the morning, the reason I go to class every day with a smile on my face ready to learn. English is the foundation on which my future is built.

Writing is not simply an act of stringing words together for me anymore; it's something that I need as much as I need to breathe. When I return to the worlds I created after months of not writing, it feels like coming home. It feels like the world is finally right again. That is how I know that I am on the right path because when I doubt or consider changing my path, I always come back to the written word. Taking breaks from the insanity that is creativity, is needed but I always return to the insanity with a smile on my face and a new idea dancing around in my head.

No, I wasn't looking for a life-changing experience when I sat down to write a novel, but that is exactly what I got. Every November I boldly partake in NaNoWriMo and every year I begin another novel.

Not all of my novels are finished, but all of them have ideas that I continue to go back to. This November marks year number five and I can't wait to see what I will create. While I haven't gotten anything published yet, that is the ultimate goal and one that I will continue to work toward with fervor.