Erin Entrada Kelly: Putting something creative out into the universe

“When I was growing up it was, it was very difficult to be, you know, kind of a quiet kid who was being bullied. Who felt very different from everyone else. So for me books were an escape, and writing was an escape. And, you know, a lot of people you talk to me about drive, and determination, and where it came from. It’s not that I ever really really thought about it. Like I’m a very determined person, but what compelled me forward growing up was this idea that I had a dream, and that one day something bigger could happen for me. And, you know, at night sometimes I would be curled up in my bed with with a blanket, and crying, and, you know, I couldn’t wait to get out school. But it seemed like forever in the future, you know, because when you’re young time seemed so long and short at the same time. But I would think “This is terrible now, but one day something better will happen.” And because I had that that dream, and that that really solid belief, you know, I felt like I was going to make it happen, and I just kept going. So, you know, I would I would write, to work on craft, send out short stories, get rejected. But I never let the rejection really get to me, because if I let that get to me than I would have to let go of that that dream, and let go of that security blanket, and I wasn’t willing to do that. So, you know, one thing that I tell young people want to speak to them is is one of the most important things that we can do is create whether it’s stories, or music, or singing in your room at the top of your lungs. No matter what you sound like putting something out in the universe that you’ve created. That’s just yours. It’s so important because there’s so little that we can control, but that’s one thing that we can control. What we create and what we put out there, and what we do with it.”