HALSEY

43. SCHOOL

"I graduated high school, and I did really well in school. I was an AP student. I did really well in my SATs. I was an avid reader. I liked to learn.

College rolled around, and I couldn't afford to go, and that was kind of a slap in the face for me because everyone tells you your whole life, freshman year to senior year, that if you work hard and you get the right grades and you do the right clubs and you do the right things, then you're going to go to college, graduate, get a good job, have a baby, and I don't know what comes next.

So here I was, and I did everything that I was "supposed" to do, and it still didn't work out. And that was my first experience really with something out of my control, taking away what I really wanted, and it was kind of a blessing in disguise for me because I ended up in a community college, which was at the time for me really upsetting because I worked hard to go to school.

I applied to one school and got in, but didn't have an other backup options because I couldn't afford to go to it. I ended up at a community college, and I started taking creative writing classes, and that's kind of what landed me here, so it was a blessing in disguise.

Sometimes if things don't work out, it could be your correct path, trying to reveal itself to you."