Being young and having dreams
Just a girl telling her story and really hoping to make a positive impact in the world.
This is meant to be not just my story but the direct speech of my dreams.
My name is Sofia, I’m an Italian sixteen-year-old girl with big dreams waiting in the wings.
I started writing fiction at eleven years old. What I remember is that my best friend at that time put me in a challenging situation during the school year. The point was to write a short story with characters in a fantasy world, with mermaids and boats, killers and rich mystery. We were both in love with the pirate’s aesthetic and wanted to create our story, similar to the Jack Sparrow one.
We started writing and writing, even during school lessons. At a certain point, our roads were divided because many ideas that I had weren’t the best option for her. From one story, we generated two different ones: different characters, different worlds, and different plots. I continued, and the chapters became so many. Even when we argued and stopped being best friends, I kept going. I started by following the game, and as I went on, I realized I had finally found my path. By the age of thirteen, I found myself holding a nearly complete handwritten manuscript, with other ideas tucked away in a drawer.
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Forty-five chapters that suddenly I started to hate. I recognized that those words were part of a person that I wasn’t anymore. They belonged to a young girl who was writing for fun, but at the same time suffering a lot. Bullying and the separation of my parents made me desperate. During that specific period of my life, I found a cure in writing. Writing about other worlds, creating my characters, and making them live the adventurous and magical life I wanted healed me. I found my place, where I could be free to do what I want and be who I want without other people judging.
I put out the ideas I had for other books and I chose the one that was better for the person I became. So I picked up the one and started the same process all over again, this time on a blank page on documents. At that specific time writing started to seem something more important than a game, and became a second job for me. I became a student and at the same time a non-official writer.
I started to read a lot — this became my favorite hobby and something that let me travel with my mind. There was born the need to go away, to start from zero, and to create my own life without people that judged me or any other problem. Go away to be myself and be free. This fortunately happened to me when real life started to push me into the real world.
I have grown and changed over these years. I have gained new knowledge and a deeper understanding of things, thanks also to the bad things that happened to me. I have come to know a world that is full of wonders yet, at the same time, so cruel. I have a boundless curiosity that I do not wish to stifle. I love traveling and listening to all kinds of stories, and I want to turn this passion into my future career. Journalism was the first path that came to mind.
To me, journalism is not just about sad news from around the globe; it is a network connecting every corner of the world through the sharing of information. Journalism bridges different cultures, places, and mindsets, finding a common thread to bring citizens the reality of events unfolding around them — often without their knowledge. Make people able to travel around the world through words on articles to comprehend it better. We all have the right to know about our surroundings and the events taking place around us. Without journalism and the media, this would not be possible. With this in mind, I would like to dedicate my career to making information accessible worldwide, free from barriers.
Right now, after a long journey that involved drafting and redrafting the manuscript four times, I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. After nearly four long years, my first book is coming to life, and this time, it will truly reach its conclusion. At seventeen, I might have the chance to publish my first book and, one day, share it with the rest of the world. I’m also thinking about finishing high school in Italy and going abroad to study journalism.
I want my life to be relevant for this world, and in my opinion, I found the right way. I just have to take a piece of paper or a blank page on documents and write so I am finally giving my dreams their own voice.
