Context: I love to write, I especially love to write fiction, and I want to be a writer when I grow up. I’ve been writing fanfic since, like, second grade (my first fic was a Harry Potter one, and it was written on paper when I was at an after school program), and the idea of creating my own stories pleases me. In English, we were told to interview and then write about the life an elderly person, like a grandparent. I chose my grandpa, because we’d done the interview on the phone and my grandma can’t hear well. So, I’m relatively finished, just bulk it up and add some more touches, and I ask one of two teachers if she can take a look. She says it’s incredible, how it’s like a movie introduction, and it’s like she knows my grandpa personally. My friend also reads it and says it’s super good. I ask my second teacher to take a look, she looks at it, and proceeds to tell me me about a contest where you write about a specific part in an elderly person’s life, and recommends I /join it next year/. /JOIN/ IT. This comes as a surprise to me, because I’m convinced this lady hates all of the students she comes into contact with, and she’s asking me to join a contest. I nod along, and she tells me to keep on working on the essay. I feel like one of my terrible fanfics has just been turned into a book and movie. But it’s not one of my fanfics it an essay I made for a grade Am I overreacting? Probably but bear with me here I’ve never been asked to join a writing competition and never even thought about joining one this is big in my writing “career” ok