After procrastinating till the night before it was due, I wrote a paper about the play — the first paper I typed on a typewriter — and turned it in the next day.
I got a good grade on it, and below the grade Mr. Criche wrote, “Sure hope you become a writer.” That was it. Just those six words, written in his signature handwriting — a bit shaky, but with a very steady baseline.
It was the first time he or anyone had indicated in any way that writing was a career option for me. Wed never had any writers in our family line, and we didnt know any writers personally, even distantly, so writing for a living didnt seem something available to me. But then, just like that, it was as if hed ripped off the ceiling and shown me the sky.