One boring summer day when I was nine, my bestfriend's mom, in what I could assume was pure frustration at having her house filled with bored kids, made a suggestion: Go down to the library and write a book report on any topic. With nothing else to do, we headed to the library and my first research paper was written about turtles...which was quickly followed by the history of the Equus caballus Linnaeus, also known as the horse but I insisted on using the scientific name. Soon, I found myself heading the library alone, researching new topics and giving them to my friend's mom when I stopped in to play. And it was from those basic papers that I discovered my love of writing and research.

 

So it is little surprise that I am still losing myself in archives, both in libraries and online, researching the latest topic that has inspired my current prose or paper.

 

Academic essays and articles are a device that allows me to critique systems of power, increase my understanding in a subject, and affords me the opportunity to continue researching a vast array of topics. While my first love has always been fiction, it is through academic papers that I've found confidence in my ability to tackle those harder topics. ​​