This week there has been a lot weighing on my mind. Ever since graduating from high school, thoughts of college have been occupying my time. However, this week is the first time I came up with a story idea that involved college students. This might not seem like much when you think about the average life span of a person and the events that happen to them. The thing is, it is a major development for me.

Throughout my life my stories usually depicted characters my age or older but none ever went on to higher education. I never saw myself as a college student…only because I thought it would be a thousand years before I’d be in college (I had a completely different concept of time). I couldn’t even imagine myself in high school!

Anyway, one of the first stories I wrote was “Sunflower’s Adventures”. The protagonist was five like I had been at the time. However, she was a fairy, so age was very different for her, which was evident when I had her get married in the sequel. I think I even had her have kids in the third story! She would have been 7 then, though I believed that she was an adult in fairy years.

After that I worked on a story called “Animal Riders”. Looking back on it, it was probably one of the most peculiar series I ever thought up. The main character, Lena, was 10 years old and she had Juvenile Arthritis. She was a superhero with a lion sidekick named Kumar. The series was supposed to go on for at least ten more novels with new characters to add to the old ones. However, I never made it past the second book so Lena ended up being 11 or 12 by the end of it.

When I was about 12 or 13, I created my first protagonist who was 16 years old. The novel was called “Dragon Slayer” and featured a fierce female character named Susan. She had seen many tragedies and devoted her time to finding and killing the creature that had caused them. The book ended up being a part of a trilogy in which she, and the other characters, got married and had children as new threats arose. However, none of them went to college.

All of my imaginings after that had teenage protagonists in whatever setting I put them in. It seemed that 16 was a good age for me to write about. However, I eventually wrote about a character that was in his twenties but he was a supporting character while the main character was 16. The story I’ve been working on for this past year is in the point of view of a teenage guy who is…guess what…16!

Yesterday, though, I came up with a story idea that involves a girl who is 18 and in college. It is set in a world where people who have super human abilities are privileged and everyone else wants to be like them. The protagonist doesn’t have superpowers so she has to work furiously in order to have the life she wants.

Nowadays, as my life is facing many changes, it makes sense that my stories would be evolving with me. However, it is still strange to me. It’s funny how every little detail can become very significant when you put it into words…and the things that you didn’t think were so important become what makes your story, your story.