Category: Opinion

No texting, no calling, no posting, no scrolling, and no listening to music. Sounds like prison to middle schoolers and high schoolers in the state of Utah. Well because it is, with this new bell-to-bell policy that has been introduced into the schools. From the moment that they step into school they have no access to the digital world anymore until the day is over.

Some might see this new policy as good or exciting. But that might be because they think the effects of not having phones during the school day are actually beneficial. To enhance students educational and social interaction without the continuous use of electronic devices is the goal of this policy.

“I feel like that removal time is really beneficial to everybody,” said Steven Dunham, director of communications and foundation for Washington County school district. “You know, everybody talks about being unplugged. There needs to be time to be unplugged.”

Others though might see this as ridiculous and outrageous. Such as parents freaking out that they can not get into contact with their kiddos during the day or that they have a family emergency that needs attending. Or it could be a student not being able to connect with their friends, check team group chats, or just to be able to have their me time. Well, I am one of those others that think that this policy is ridiculous and outrageous. 

This policy is very easy to understand but a lot harder to agree with. The facts are pretty simple and are laid out and said that every school in the state needs to enforce this bell-to-bell policy of the cellphone ban but it is up to the districts on how they implement it. For example, the Washington County school district are having grades kindergarten through ninth grade follow bell-to-bell but grades 10 through 12 are under more of a limited use policy.  

During the school day students are required to keep their phones, AirPods, and any other electronic device you can think of except for smartwatches tucked away in their backpacks and to not be pulled out again until leaving. And, doing this for a seven hour school day sounds pretty insane and criminal if you were to ask me. If I had to do this, I would not be able to do my schoolwork, send emails, or communicate with my bosses and editors. Which in reality would turn into me falling behind, getting fired, or losing opportunities.

This policy has seen some benefits though. Even though the school districts are not tracking any true data which in all honesty is very confusing on why not. Because for them to truly tell if this policy is helping or hurting is to actually track things such as test scores or less instances of conflict, right? But they have been told by other indicators. 

“We’re not specifically tracking data, but we are noticing fewer disruptions in the classrooms,” Dunham said. “I think it’s safe to say that we’re seeing less instances of bullying…And we’re seeing less instances of students feeling like they don’t fit in.”

These positive motions that the districts have been seeing are making this transition and process a lot easier on them.

Some of you still might be thinking why is this policy bad. Especially after hearing something like that. Like I mentioned earlier of what this policy would do to me and my life, I feel like some of the students also have the same concerns. 

Even though I did not get my first phone until freshman year of high school, I still think of the many more things that I could have done and been a part of if I would have had a phone in middle school. The countless times I could have been sitting there playing Game Pigeon or Among Us with my friends after tests in class is too many times to count. All of that was because I did not even have a phone.

So in a way, I kind of have already experienced my own little self bell-to-bell policy thanks to my parents. It was not something that was fun or exciting to experience. It was actually more along the lines of gut wrenching pain and just sadness. And, knowing now that students will never even have that chance to play games on their phones after tests or assignments with their friends breaks a piece of my heart a little.

That being said, knowing that every bone of my body does not agree with this policy, hopefully the school districts and the people in charge one day figure out that the world is evolving daily. Cellphones and any other electronic devices are just going to keep being a part of our lives more and more as time goes on.

When Dolly Parton, Tim Curry and Peter Cullen, the voice of Optimus Prime, died within days of one another, social media filled with tributes from fans who felt as though they had lost someone they personally knew. People revisited Parton’s music, Curry’s performances and Cullen’s iconic voice, sharing how deeply these celebrities had shaped their lives. The grief is real, but so is the distance between a fan and the person they are mourning. 

I understand why people feel sadness when a celebrity dies. However, I believe there is a difference between mourning the impact someone’s work had on your life and mourning the loss of a personal relationship. That distinction has become increasingly difficult to recognize, particularly as social media has made celebrities more accessible than ever. 

Through platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, people can follow nearly every aspect of a celebrity’s public life. Fans see interviews, family photos, personal storiesand daily updates. Over time, this repeated exposure can create a strong sense of familiarity. 

Familiarity, however, is not the same as knowing someone. 

This is where the concept of a parasocial relationship comes in. A parasocial relationship is a one sided connection in which a person develops an emotional attachment to someone who does not know them personally. Parasocial relationships are not necessarily harmful and can be a normal part of fandom. The concern begins when people lose sight of the fact that the relationship is one sided.  

People can feel genuinely connected to celebrities because of the role their work has played in their lives. A favorite song may be connected to an important memory. A movie may remind someone of their childhood. A celebrity’s work may have provided comfort during a difficult period. 

Those experiences are meaningful. They do not mean the fan had a personal relationship with the celebrity. 

This is where I believe the boundary of fandom should exist. 

There is nothing wrong with following a celebrity’s career, listening to their music, watching their films, or supporting their work. There is also nothing wrong with feeling disappointed when a celebrity makes a decision or feeling genuine sadness after their death. 

The problem is when admiration becomes entitlement. 

Fans should not feel entitled to a celebrity’s time, relationships or private life. They should not harass people who criticize a celebrity or assume that consuming someone’s content gives them a personal understanding of that person. 

Social media has made that boundary increasingly difficult to maintain. Celebrities can communicate directly with millions of followers, often sharing personal details that would have been inaccessible to fans in previous generations. This can create an illusion of intimacy.

Seeing someone’s life through a screen does not make that person a friend. 

The same distinction applies to celebrity deaths. A fan may sincerely mourn the loss of a musician, actor or public figure because that person’s work was meaningful. However, the grief experienced by a fan is different from the grief experienced by a person’s family and close friends. 

Both can be genuine. They are simply not the same. 

I also understand the argument that people should be allowed to mourn however they want. If someone wants to cry when their favorite singer dies, replay their albums, post old photographs or talk with other fans about what that artist meant to them, why should anyone care? People are entitled to their emotions. 

The problem is not how much someone grieves. The problem is when that grief becomes entitlement. 

A close friend or family member knows a person in a way a celebrity cannot. They know that person’s personality, history, struggles and everyday life. A celebrity may influence someone’s life without ever knowing that person exists. 

That does not make a fan’s grief fake. It simply means the relationship behind the grief is different. 

This distinction matters because fans can mourn a celebrity while still recognizing the boundaries of the relationship they actually had. Grief does not give fans ownership over a celebrity or their family. It does not give them the right to invade someone’s privacy, attack other people or act as though they personally knew the person who died. 

This issue is not limited to entertainers. Political figures can also become the subject of intense parasocial relationships, with people sometimes facing criticism for publicly grieving individuals they never personally knew. At the same time, others are criticized for not expressing enough sympathy. 

Neither extreme is necessary. 

People are entitled to their emotions, but they should also understand the nature of the relationship that produced those emotions. 

Parasocial relationships are a normal part of modern media consumption. They can provide entertainment, inspiration and a sense of connection. However, that connection should not replace an understanding of reality. 

A celebrity can have a significant influence on someone’s life without actually being part of that person’s life. 

Celebrity grief is not inherently strange. What I find concerning is when people begin treating the death of someone they never met as though they have lost a close friend or family member. 

Being a fan does not require pretending to know a celebrity. 

It simply requires appreciating what they created. 

We can listen to the songs that remind us of important moments, rewatch the movies that comforted us, remember the characters that shaped our childhoods and talk about how someone’s work affected our lives. 

When a celebrity dies, we do not have to make our grief smaller. We can let ourselves mourn, share memories and celebrate the impact their work had on us. 

But we should also respect the difference between feeling connected to someone’s work and actually knowing the person behind it. 

Appreciate the art. Share the memories. Let yourself grieve. 

Just do not confuse being deeply affected by someone with actually knowing them. 

When the power outage hit on Aug. 27, I was on campus. Students in the Gardner Student Center were confused but carried on with their day, acting as if it would just be a short outage. As I was walking back to my car to leave campus, I overheard panicked voices exclaiming that the power was out everywhere. Chaos had hit the town, and no one was prepared for it. Everyone needs to be more prepared in case something like this ever happens again and not be so reliant on electricity.

Residents made ill-advised choices by calling emergency lines just to ask why their power was out, as drivers got into accidents with traffic lights being down. St. George drivers are already bad enough, but removing a form of guidance didn’t go over well. Emergency services weren’t able to dispatch as fast since the lines were full of complaints and questions about the outage. 

Local leaders handled the situation the best that they could. Updating the residents on what the current situation was and getting power to the most important buildings were good ideas on their part. If a longer outage happened, I would hope that local leaders would have more reliable generators to use or they could even implement more solar-powered systems. Hopefully this situation gave them more of an understanding of how to improve and handle the outage if it ever happened again.

In today’s world, people are so heavily reliant on electricity and technology that a few hours without power sends people into a whirlwind of worry. I admit, I was worried when the outage was happening since I had schoolwork to do, but without a charged laptop and Wi-Fi, there wasn’t much I could control. I had to resort to charging my phone in my car as I updated the power outage story we wanted to get out for Sun News Daily. I was scared that my power wouldn’t come back that night, and I wouldn’t be able to do what I needed, even though the situation was out of my control.

My parents are also reliant on technology when it comes to their pastimes. My dad was heartbroken during the outage because his favorite football team’s game was being aired, and my mom often plays games on her phone to pass the time. After the outage, my dad got almost a “doomsday prepper” mindset. Battery-powered lanterns and candles lit my home and after the outage, he bought plastic water bottles and easy-to-make food in case the outage happened again. 

I don’t doubt that more people around the town had the same mindset as my dad, and I think that’s important after seeing how residents reacted to the outage. This outage needed to be a wake-up call for the county. We can’t be so reliant on screens, appliances and other everyday electronics in our lives.

Something good that came out of the outage was the socialization that started to happen. Since people couldn’t hide behind their screens, groups got together to hang out and enjoy each other’s company. More people should think about this night and the experience of sharing it with those around them.

I’d fear for Washington County if the power was out for days. This year, Gary, Indiana, faced a power outage that lasted two weeks because of violent storms. I can’t imagine what would be happening in the county if the outage lasted even more than 24 hours, let alone 2 weeks. If any natural disaster happened in this town, residents would be acting like the apocalypse was happening. This experience should be a wake-up call not just to the county but also to us as individuals that we need to be prepared for unexpected outages and not be so reliant on electricity.

Squinting in the sunlight, waving hello to familiar faces, chatting with former professors who still remember your name. This is the experience Utah Tech wants to provide for all their students.

A garden full of seeds must be watered for beautiful flowers to bloom. Utah Tech is much like that garden: it is full of potential, but it needs room to grow and the resources to help its students flourish. As the university’s headlines have been growing beyond the borders of our city, they have been catching the attention of students statewide, out of state and internationally. With that growth have come new programs, housing, and opportunities that prepare students for the outside world. I believe this growth is necessary because it opens doors that would not have existed before. It allows for our campus to unleash its full potential, preparing students to succeed. 

However, Utah Tech must be careful that growing does not mean losing the smalltown feeling that made this university special in the first place. The challenge is not whether Utah Tech should grow, but how it can grow while still making students feel known, valued, and part of a community.

Growth has created more opportunities for students to find their place and prepare for life after college. As Utah Tech grows, so do the opportunities for students to become involved and challenge themselves. This semester, the university has reached over 100 clubs, giving students more places to find people with similar interests and goals. Programs such as Mock Trial push students to compete, collaborate, and prepare themselves for experiences beyond the classroom. Utah Tech’s Pickleball team has even reached the number one ranking in the nation, showing what can happen when students are given the resources and opportunities to grow. Like a garden, a campus needs more than seeds to flourish; it needs the resources and space to help those seeds grow.

Utah Tech has also seen an increase in students from around the world. This international community allows for the opportunity of learning from individuals with completely different backgrounds and experiences. Furthermore it gives students the ability to have hard conversations, opening our minds to different and similar ways of thinking around the globe. Through my French classes I have met many students from abroad, making connections otherwise I would not have been able to. I also learned things about other countries that I could not have in any textbook. 

Through the Mock Trial Club, I have been able to compete against students from across the country. Standing in front of a jury and being challenged by another team is terrifying, but so rewarding. It is more than a competition. It is a challenge to stand with my opinion and defend it. Every competition, I gain more confidence, not just in my abilities, but also in myself as a person. Through this I have met countless incredible individuals who challenge me on perspectives I had never considered before. These people helped me step out of my comfort zone and grow beyond my own limitations, especially when I was so stuck on my perspective of the case. These opportunities become even more meaningful when our faculty helps students find and make the most of them.           

One of the biggest parts of what makes Utah Tech feel so personal is the faculty. Professors not only strive to connect with students in class but want us to succeed in the real world and beyond. Advisors can point us towards new classes and opportunities as well as internships. 

Professors also go beyond this by taking steps and using their own networks to allow us to explore our interests. A couple of days ago in one of my classes the professor brought in a group of people all involved in legal studies. In a prior class, one of my classmates mentioned wanting to become a court interpreter. My professor then took extra steps to add an interpreter to the panel that would visit our class.  

Professors aren’t just teaching information: they’re helping us figure out how to use that knowledge in our futures. They listen to what their students want to pursue and find ways to help us reach those goals. This is what our university is about, it is about being noticed. Being noticed provides our students with experiences and connections that can follow them beyond their time at Utah Tech. 

Like any garden our university needs space to grow, and it has used that to provide room for new students to grow. A garden still needs adequate water space and attention to allow all plants within the garden to grow in a healthy manner. The same will need to occur if Utah Tech is going to maintain, so the individual can continue to become and not end up being lost in the statistics of the university.

One of the things that makes Utah Tech special is having a professor who remembers your name, listens when you mention your goals, and uses their connections to help you find greater opportunities. I have been lucky enough to experience how meaningful that can be. But as classes become larger and the student body continues to grow, I have to wonder how easy it will be for professors to maintain those same relationships with every student. A professor can only give so much attention to each individual, and students can only feel noticed if they have the opportunity to be seen.

Growth should not be something Utah Tech fears. Instead, it should be something the university carefully manages and plans for. There has to be a point where the university asks not only how many students it can bring in but how many students it can serve while keeping the same feeling that everyone loves. 

As we continue to grow it is crucial that students don’t get forgotten. The university should assist professors by regulating class sizes to allow for a more personal experience. Our students want to feel like they matter, they want to be noticed, and not just be some stranger in a large class.

Additionally, classes such as foreign languages should be advertised more, because they do not only concern themselves with languages, but also learning more about cultures around the world. It opens your horizon to new concepts you would have not learned otherwise.

Personally I believe Utah Tech should continue focusing on opportunities that will prepare students for the real world, especially more research, internships, and clubs that allow students to compete outside of Utah. They allow for us to apply our knowledge outside of the classroom, and become more well-rounded individuals. 

Have you ever been to New York City? It is beautiful, and there is something exciting about being somewhere where nobody knows you. But there are also moments where you can feel like you do not matter. You feel as if you are one person among millions, not one person in a million.

Utah Tech needs growth to reach its full potential. A more diverse student body as well as better resources allow for bright ideas to form and spread. A campus that allows for students to have difficult discussions, is a campus that flourishes. 

The goal should be to grow without losing what made students want to come here in the first place. Once the university becomes too focused on numbers to know its students, it may become just another university. And the reason many of us chose to come was because you were never supposed to feel like your presence was of no importance. You were supposed to feel like one in a million.

The lights shut off, and the crowd finds their seats as they prepare to watch what they assume is just a whimsical kids production at their small local theater. As the show begins, the music creeps in, and the kids come out singing in front of an artificial-looking backdrop that appears to have never been touched by human hands. I can’t believe my eyes.

For months, I saw a theater advertising a kids production using lines like, “come be part of the world they’re creating.” I couldn’t help but notice the irony in that statement when they chose to forgo creativity and rely on lazy alternatives, like a sloppy backdrop “created” by artificial intelligence.

At intermission, the theater displayed art examples drawn by the kids for the backdrops. I was confused by the decision to drop the kids’ hand-drawn art for something they didn’t create.

The kids did a fantastic job combatting the poor creative decisions made by the production organizers. The production itself was adorable, and that couldn’t be taken away by anybody.

AI has waged war on more than just small theaters. AI has continued to develop and become a hot topic in national politics; hard questions regarding its place in our society remain unanswered. Arguments for AI usage in other fields are understandable to me, but the debate over whether it has a place in art or not is ridiculous. 

AI generates art through collecting millions of examples throughout the internet and using aspects from everything it gathers to create an image. In other words, AI is incapable of creating original content.

In 2024, cartoonist Sarah Andersen and a handful of other visual artists filed a class-action lawsuit against Stability AI after they unlawfully stole billions of copyrighted images off of the internet to train their AI art generator.

The lawsuit has yet to reach a conclusion, and evidence is still being gathered for the case. Artists are now fighting for a place in their own field, with AI quickly invading their domain.

This isn’t the first time Stability AI has seen lawsuits.

In 2023, Getty Images took Stability AI to the High Court of England and Wales, accusing Stability of taking millions of watermarked and copyrighted images without permission to train the Stable Diffusion AI model. In 2025 the English High Court ruled in favor of Stability AI.

Amidst the lawsuits and usage of AI in local theaters, some artists are still considering AI a viable creative option.

In a press release written by American artist, Craig Boehman in December 2024, he stated: “It’s not only about convenience. For me, at the heart of it, it’s about expression and intention.” AI was never supposed to be convenient, and expression and intention are not generated, they are created. 

Boehman continues to express little concern with the changes that could be made to the job market, mentioning that he is aware that AI may take jobs. He argues, “Unfortunately and fortunately, time moves on. We’re all subject to these forces of change.”

Artists face a lot of challenges when competing with AI, but what scares me the most is there seems to be no sense of urgency from those around me.

The lack of concern from the attendees at the small local kids production, as well as Boehman’s response to AI’s potentially taking of jobs, raises questions over how normalized generative AI has become. 

I rebuke the AI invasion over the arts, and I urge everybody to reconsider it’s role in our society. Artificial intelligence never has and never will have a place in art.

As much as it hurts me to say, I didn’t walk out of “Michael” completely moonwalking on air.

“Michael” follows the one and only Michael Jackson, from his days with The Jackson 5 up until his album “Bad.” In that time frame, we see Michael’s iconic performances and music videos, while also seeing his contentious relationship with his father and how he develops his own artistic identity. 

I had VERY high hopes for this movie because just like everyone else on the planet, I’m a huge fan. So I’ll hold your hand while I say this. As much as I thoroughly enjoyed watching this film and was constantly tapping my feet and humming along, I couldn’t help but leave the theater disappointed at how surface-level the final product turned out to be.

I understand wanting to create a film that covers a large amount of someone’s life, but ultimately, there was too much happening for the audience to get a moment alone with Michael and truly see his personality. 

What I did like

Jaafar Jackson plays Michael, and Jaafar is Michael’s nephew in real life. He obviously had that talent in his genes because there’s NO other person alive who could’ve perfectly executed Michael’s voice and mannerisms. 

From the very first words Jaafar says, I was instantly convinced that I was watching Michael on screen. And being directly related gave his performance a personal feel to it, like he truly cared to show the world who his uncle was. 

Even his dance moves were PERFECT — and honestly, the music video and concert sequences were my favorite parts of the film. I got chills watching the filming of “Thriller” because it felt like I was there in real life, a part of that set. 

The live performances of “Human Nature” during the final Jackson 5 victory tour in 1984 and “Bad” when Michael is finally on his own in 1988 literally made me feel like I was in the crowd — I mean I had STRAIGHT chills. As a live music lover and avid concertgoer, these scenes made me feel transported into the movie. 

Jaafar’s voice was dubbed over Michael’s, which blended seamlessly, but what’s really impressive is that anything acoustic was purely Jaafar’s voice — and I kid you not, he sounded exactly like Michael. 

The boy who plays young Michael in The Jackson 5, Juliano Krue Valdi, KILLED his portrayal of Michael too, with his vocals also dubbed. 

This movie is every bit as grand and blingy as you’d expect from a film about the King of Pop — but more important than that, Michael was portrayed as kind and generous. Throughout the movie, there are scenes of Michael visiting hospitals and genuinely having conversations with the people, not just simply visiting them for a photo-op.

They also showed his love and kindness for animals, which is shown when he gets his chimp, Bubbles. It’s even included that he donated all of his settlement money from an injury to the hospital burn unit where he was treated.  

What I didn’t like 

I’ve seen all the negative reviews saying that this film didn’t cover any of the allegations against Michael, but there was FAR too much content in this movie to fully explore that. Plus, this film only covers up to “Bad,” BEFORE any of those allegations existed.

Hear me out… this film feels surface-level because it’s trying to do way TOO much. It covers too many years and pivotal moments that none of them really get the depth they deserve, like the Pepsi commercial scene, where Michael’s hair catches on fire, and he gets severe burns and has to be hospitalized. That felt completely rushed over, and we never see Michael heal or show pain. 

The best biopic I’ve ever seen sticks to a specific time in the artist’s life, during the making of a specific album. I know that’s not always realistic for biopics, but this approach works best for showing true emotion, instead of feeling rushed.

We didn’t get much time with Michael alone in his thoughts and his struggles. We never saw how deeply affected he was by his father’s abuse and controlling nature — not once did we see his own personal thoughts. Considering that his relationship with his dad is the film’s central conflict, it’s frustrating that we never really get a glimpse into what Michael is actually thinking or feeling.

It’s not just the heavier moments that are missing — we don’t get to see his personality either. There was one line that made me laugh where he said something along the lines of, “If I’m not here to receive these ideas, God might give them to Prince.” But beyond that, the film barely taps into his humor.

Michael was known as lively and funny, and he liked to tease people. Instead of seeing his internal world, we’re left with a version of him that feels defined only by what’s happening around him, not what’s happening within him.

The verdict 

I’m rating “Michael” a three out of five stars because Jaafar’s performance was INCREDIBLE and a must-see, but the film did lack a level of depth to Michael that I was expecting. 

I would’ve preferred a film honed in on a specific moment in time, like the making of one album, because this film is rushed. But no matter how rushed it feels, if you’re a fan (and I know all of you are), then you HAVE to see it in theaters — if not for the story, then at least for the chance to feel like you’re front row at a Michael Jackson concert.

When I got to campus fall 2024, I spent many nights at the desk in my tiny Campus View III dorm room, clacking away on my computer as I wrote a fictional story about pirates.

I took inspiration from my favorite action movies and combined the adventure with steep character dynamics that show the two main characters’ similar personalities in action, even as they fight on different sides of any given conflict.

On April 6, four weeks before my college graduation, I opened a package with my fully formatted, edited and complete novel, “Gold Coast,” releasing on Amazon April 24th.

If you told 18-year-old Rylee that she would be walking across the graduation stage with her self-published book in her hands, she would say that it was impossible and swear it would never happen. 

I’ve always loved writing, but becoming a published author and pursuing that career always seemed far off. Three percent of writers actually finish novels they set out to write, and most people online agree that aspiring authors have a 1-2% chance of actually becoming traditionally published.

Even if a writer does get their book published, a traditionally published book, on average, sells only three thousand copies in its lifespan, which is not nearly enough to sustain a career.

In the wise words of “The Hunger Games” author Suzanne Collins, the odds were not in my favor.

Those chances of success alone are enough to dissuade most rational people from spending years of tedious work crafting a story and characters that feel alive. They would certainly scare away any broke, starry-eyed college student who barely had the time to cook dinner.

Yet, here I am. It’s been one of the weirdest journeys of my life. The last year and a half of this writing process was nothing short of heart-wrenchingly difficult because of the time commitment and mental focus it took. I would not have done this without the lessons I learned about hard work, focus and being intentional with my time and energy.

After finishing the first draft April 2025, I spent every night editing. I’d write on my lunch breaks at my job because every other free moment was spent cranking out 12 summer credits for my degree.

I sent the manuscript to an editor by the time I got back to St. George in late August 2025, and I was so relieved to take a break from editing. 

A week and a half later, my editor sent the draft right back and told me that I needed to do more self edits before she’d keep reading.

At that point, I was ready to quit. There were many times over that long summer of self-editing when I thought about putting this project on the back burner. There were many nights when I decided that I was going to quit writing, and I’d promise myself that I wouldn’t open my computer the next day to work on it. 

But every morning, the first thing I thought about when I woke up was, “What do I get to write about today?”

It was a weird headspace to be in; I was mentally exhausted from school and work, but I quite literally could not stop writing, no matter how hard I tried. I was shackled to finishing this book, sometimes against my will. 

This happened because no matter what I told myself, my heart refused to give up. The long hours of pushing through tedious school work prepared me for the long hours of writing and editing, and I knew that the only way past this challenge was to put my head down and plow straight through it.

It took me a little over a month to finish the self-edits my editor requested, and most of that happened past midnight due to my insanely busy fall schedule. It took four months for my editor and me to polish the draft (shoutout to my girl Lia for sticking with me), and it took another month to finish copyedits and other final touches. I started posting on social media to promote the book in January, polished the cover with my designer in February, formatted the book in March, and in April, I was holding it in my hands.

“Gold Coast” follows the story of pirate hunter Emery Walker as she is captured by Warren Chadwick, one of the world’s most feared pirates.

The plot follows the two as Warren works to tear down Emery’s reputation and image as a pirate hunter as revenge for her arresting his innocent errand boy.

The only thing that kept me motivated during the hard times was the love of fictional storytelling. When I was in the zone, the words practically flowed from my fingers, and it was so much fun. I loved writing fast-paced action sequences and the banter between Emery and Warren.

I loved pitting their clashing values and backgrounds against each other as they worked to sabotage the other’s plans, and no matter what I did to force the story out of my mind, it always seemed to linger.

I took that insistence as a sign to keep going even when I wanted to give up. When it was late at night, and I could barely keep my eyes open while editing, I tried to imagine how amazing it would feel to hold my book and have something to show for the time, tears and sleep that I sacrificed.

If I get nothing else out of this venture, I at least learned about the power of sacrifice and dedicating time to the things you want. I was intentional with every second of my day and learned how to slip in just a couple of minutes of writing before a class or between appointments at work.

Effort and intention were the reasons I was able to chase this dream during college, and effort and intention can carry you far if you keep your eyes on the prize.

I found a way to work through exhaustion and lack of motivation, and I’m proud to say that “Gold Coast” is now available to purchase on Amazon in e-book or paperback. I hope you fall in love with the characters and story just as much as I have.

If you want something, you have to go get it. You have to grit your teeth through the hard times and put intentional, focused effort into every moment of the journey. It might be difficult, but you’ll always come out a better person on the other side. It just takes one step at a time.