Julia Jankowski

That Poem I Wrote when I was 12

The first piece of writing that was very important to me personally was a rhyming poem, not the first poem I ever wrote, but the first one I went through the process and re-reading and editing a few times through. It was the first poem I wanted to be proud of, the first poem I wanted to share with others. I was 12 years old, and I had recently fallen in love with reading. I had a reading assignment in school, I don’t remember the book, but I know I went through it fast and talked about it a lot with my Mom, who had her own life-long love of reading fiction and literature. She saw a spark in me and gave me her copy of To Kill a Mockingbird and said, “Let’s see how you do with this book.” Harper Lee’s novel is not exactly written for 12-year-olds with its heavy themes of racism, ethics, and the law, but I managed her prose and vocabulary and found myself captivated by the story and its young narrator, Scout. I loved it. I loved the experience of escapism and learning at the same time.