Then and Now

Right after high school, I attended SLCC for a few semesters, then stopped. My wife was going to law school, so I supported us until she graduated, and then I returned to SLCC. I was about 25. It was an affordable place to explore what I wanted to study, and the age diversity made it easy to fit in.

Initially my plan was to write stories for video games, but then I took an adolescent literacy course at SLCC and loved it! So, once I moved on to the U of U, I took another one. The professor said, “You’ll make a really good teacher.” He didn’t know that was not my plan; apparently most of the students in the class were on that track. Eventually, I lost interest in the video game path and switched to becoming a teacher.

"Always chase the things that make you happy."

For the last 7 years, while teaching middle school English, I’ve been writing adolescent and young adult books. Some got published, some not. It was the toughest thing I’ve ever tried to do. The first book in my Above the Black trilogy— Sky's End—made it onto The New York Times Best Seller list and is being developed into a feature film.

Looking back, it is satisfying to see where I started and where my writing abilities are now. I really practice self-reflection after finishing a book, whether published or not, and ask myself, what could I do better next time? I home in on my weaknesses and tackle those until they start becoming strengths.

Advice

Always chase the things that make you happy. For me, I struggled in high school—my organizational skills weren’t good, and I lacked motivation. At SLCC, I felt like I had a lot more self-agency, choosing my own classes, making my own choices. I ended up graduating with honors from SLCC, and cum laude at the U of U. Remember, you can always start fresh—that is what SLCC was for me.