I Never Thought of Myself as a Writer 

As Ms. File handed my paper back to me, she said “have you ever thought about being a writer?” I looked at the paper, and it had an “A” inscribed at the top. I was only in 7th grade at the time, so no, becoming a writer had never even entered my mind. I sometimes wish I could track down Ms. File, to express how much her singular question affected me that day. 

I never became a writer, or at least that was what I used to think. In my younger years, my limited beliefs of what a writer was boiled down to someone who created novels — and that never resonated with me. 

Today I look back at that moment with Ms. File, and I'm a little in awe of what she saw in me. That’s because for the last 15+ years, I’ve made my living as a writer. I don’t write fiction or anything like that.  But I’ve written things that have been shared with hundreds of thousands of folks. Through my skill of writing, I’ve been able to share information and ideas, teach people things, and inspire them to take action.  

I’ve never been one for titles, so proclaiming that I’m a writer still feels a little pretentious for some reason. But if you insist on knowing my title, maybe I’d say this: I’m a Purveyor of Words. I have fun wrangling words, and I know exactly what to do when they’re misbehaving.