Bruc3w4yn3

I've always been a hopeless (or rather, hopeful) dreamer, but when my second grade teacher started reading the Hobbit to my class, my life was changed forever. I was raised on classic stories like Oliver Twist, the Three Musketeers, and Treasure Island, but this was my first introduction to proper fantasy outside of the realm of folk tales and fables for children (Hansel and Gretel, Jack and the Beanstalk) and I recognized it as at once the most down to Earth story I had ever encountered and also the most richly fantastic. When the Jackson Fellowship of the Ring film was released, I rushed to read the whole of the Lord of the Rings and it again changed everything for me. For a while it spoiled stories for me, because everything I either read or wrote was measured against how closely it matched Tolkien's works - and everything I found failed to do that. It was actually Professor Olsen's original podcast class on Tolkien and discovering my love for philology that made me learn to appreciate other writers and works and realize that I wanted to return to school to get my teaching certificate, which is what I started last year when I left my job in customer service and started taking classes toward that goal. I'm now over half way through my program and it is already deeply rewarding to be working with a subject that is so meaningful to me and in a way that will hopefully improve the lives of my students.