If we were standing in front of each other I guess you would perceive me as a shy person, that doesn’t talk a lot, very serious, maybe too much for someone of my age, but all my life I realized that I never fit in the profile of most of the people my age: Socialize, going out, listen to pop music and follow that whole culture of watching too much T.V and never developing that critical judgment of how much influence the mass media have on us, how much it harms us and makes us kind of shallow and without a taste for culture, creative thinking or a true sense for life.
But then I can contradict myself because I’m very brand oriented about clothes, capitalist and tend to sometimes stereotype people.
I have a very few friends because honestly I’m not someone easy to hang around with (maybe due to that contradictory personality I have) but the few friends I have are true ones, people that their friendship means a lot to me, sometimes I really wonder why they still want to be my friends and is not that they are masochistic it’s just that when you get to really know me I’m very honest, someone you could trust, supportive and not really shy but very open and expressive.
About my family we are 3 sons and 1 daughter, I’m the oldest one followed by Ivan of 20, Adrian of almost 18 and my sister Marifer of 13. Since my first years I have been always taught to give a good example to them, to have more responsibilities and be a positive role model.
My father has a very similar character as mine (both Capricorn) so you can imagine how many times we will constantly end up on arguments; The most critical discussion now has been about my future, He always encouraged me to continue the family business which is a middle size shoe factory and already a really successful business making it one of the largest factories in Mexico. I tried before to be a model, actor and even a director, just last summer I took an 8 week course at the New York Film Academy, but he always tell me that I should get at least a business major and then I could do whatever I want with my life. My mother on the other side had always encouraged me and supported those artistic qualities that I showed since my early years: Acting on Plays, Oratory and Poetry Contests,.
We are a very close family, we still travel together, there’s good communication with my parents, we all have lunch together, a very traditional family for this modern age that all the values they transmitted to us have been effectively through all those years in a catholic school.
It’s hard to say I have a favorite book, there are so many good books, but I’ll have to say that my favorite are: Fitzgerald, Dickens, Sartre, Camus, Steinbeck, Borges, Pacheco, Rulfo, Bukowski, Capote, Poe and Octavio Paz.
Contemporary writers I like Xavier Velasco, Mark Hadon, David Mamet, Michael Moore, Nicholas sparks, Arturo Pérez-Reverte, Jorge Volpi and many more that probably their names escape my memory.
I have always enjoyed this stories about social climbers or characters with a dark past that achieve great accomplishments or you know who talk about women, deceptions, depressions, current affairs, love, existentialism, etc. I tried to read Faulkner but I could simply never make it probably because the English level seemed to be very advanced or maybe I just never felt that connection you can sometimes have with another book, I’ve read Hemingways the Captain and Sea and it’s a very good novel but it cause that great impact on me.
How did I got into this writing world? There was always this magic between keyboards, pens and paper, probably trying to make a journal was a key factor, first I tried after watching a T.V show called Dougie Howser and then it started in my second year in highschool with a school assignment and since then I’ve been constantly writing.
I’ve tried to participate since College in as many contests as I could, unluckily there are still no awards, I have subscribed to all this newsletters to seek for new opportunities. My journal is probably my best work.
This summer I tried to write all kinds of genre to find my favorite one, maybe Romantic might sound like the right one but then when I realized how fantastic it’s to write like a children and for the children, the search might be over because on the inside I feel like a child.
My writing ambitions are to finally win an award, to be published, to sell a lot of stories, maybe turning some of them into scripts until they become a movie. To prove to people that you can make a successful living as a writer, that is not just a hobby but maybe my true passion or career in life, truly hoping that if I don’t really have what it takes, you’ll let me know it and then I can retire happily that at least I tried my best.
In my future I plan to go to work at the factory now full time but with enough free time to still write and complete this course, everybody has to work right?.
Excitement can be the best to describe my feelings now, I feel this course can be very helpful and really boost my writing career, it’s strange to think how something that at the beginning became a hobby, my way of expressing my feelings, thoughts, reflections of my life, now can become my way of living, writing is something I could never live without it anymore, it’s a very addictive drug more than Caffeine which I’m already a big consumer.
I believe I just need to find my work and writing balance, some people use their free time in many different ways to fulfill their dreams and writing and reading are the ones I choose.
Name I wish to be addressed: Raúl
Age: 22
Marital Status: Single
Occupation: College Student
Group age interested to write for: Teenage and 9-12
Not planning to seek college credits
Magazines and Newspapers: Writers Digest, Poets and Writers, The NewYorker, Letras Libres, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times (Love the Sunday Issue) and a local financial newspaper.