I used to struggle with viewing my writing abilities as a talent. When I was younger, I would write little poems and beginnings of stories and I would show them to my mom. Despite her encouragement, I would crumple them up and never finish them because I felt as if I was just imitating all the books I had read. When I started high school I abandoned creative writing completely and instead latched onto newspaper and critical papers for my English classes. This self-doubt led me to choose the wrong major when I started college. I was a Public Relations major when I started at the University of Florida. I knew I wanted to major in English, but my parents encouraged me to choose a more practical major and I complied. By the end of my freshman year, I chose to transfer to USC because of the progressive degree program in Literary Editing and Publishing and changed my major to English.
When I started at USC I planned to take the literature track, but something told me to take an Intro to Fiction course just to be sure—my mom encouraged me by reminding me of how I used to write stories when I was younger, a memory I had long forgotten. I remember the first story I wrote for that class I didn’t even format into paragraphs. I wrote one page of solid text. I was so embarrassed when my professor, MG Lord, returned it to me with the note in all caps “PLEASE FORMAT INTO PARAGRAPHS!” I was so new to creative writing and all of my classmates seemed more experienced that I completely forgot all my writing fundamentals. But Professor Lord liked the story, and that was all I needed to channel the child Alexis who loved writing stories and now felt confident enough to finish them. After that course, I changed to the creative writing track and I began to finally think of myself as a “writer.” I then took Fiction Writing and Advanced Fiction Writing with Aimee Bender. Having Professor Bender for a whole year really helped solidify my confidence as a writer. The LEAP program opened my eyes to how expansive nonfiction is and the publishing world and the professors encouraged me and praised my writing even more. I can honestly say transferring to USC and changing my major to English Creative Writing was one of the best decisions I ever made. Professor Bender and MG both even helped me get the two internships I have now. I know the connections I have made here will last a lifetime.
