Irelis Rodriguez

How did you pick your career? Did you know all along?

Becoming an author was not always part of my plan. Before my freshman year of high school, I had a dream about writing stories, and something shifted in me. I fell in love with writing my thoughts and sharing my ideas with the world. I wanted readers to experience adventure alongside the fictional characters I created. I wanted my stories to offer more than just words, so I wanted them to carry meaning, life lessons, and imagination for people who love reading and even for those who struggle to enjoy it. Writing became more than a hobby. It became a purpose. Throughout high school, I participated in extracurricular activities that supported my passion, including NaNoWriMo participation awards and the Scholastic Art & Writing competitions. I started seriously pursuing writing during my freshman year, but the more I learned about storytelling, the more I realized I had always been a writer. As a child, I had a strong imagination. In language arts classes, I naturally wrote stories without understanding that it was my full passion. That realization during freshman year saved me from uncertainty about what I wanted to do after high school. My writing journey has been both challenging and rewarding. It pushed me to stay disciplined and focused. It gave me something to work toward. Looking back, I am proud of how far I’ve come, and I am committed to continuing forward. I believe failure is part of growth, but giving up is not an option. Hard work compounds over time, and eventually you look back and realize your struggles shaped your strength. Writing also became something deeper for me. After experiencing trauma, I struggled with feeling like I had no purpose. Writing gave me one. It gave me a reason to continue. It transformed my pain into expression. Instead of being defined by mental health struggles or reduced to statistics, I chose to channel those experiences into creativity. Writing became a healthy way to cope and to rebuild my sense of self. I do not pursue this career for recognition from others. I pursue it for myself. Even when my achievements are not acknowledged by my family, I remain proud of what I have built. My academic efforts and extracurricular involvement are extensions of my commitment to my craft. Writing did not just become my career goal. It became proof to myself that I can build something meaningful. It gave me direction, stability, and a future to move toward. And I will continue to grow and not out of pressure, but out of purpose.

When you were a student, did you do anything outside of school to build skills or get knowledge that has helped your career?

Over the next four years of studying Alison online, I plan to participate in internships, masterclasses, careerfest events, writing competitions, fellowships, essays competitions, entrepreneurship training, debate competitions, mentorship programs, and career preparation activities. During the summer, I want to do grammar workshops with certification, editing and formatting my books for Amazon Kindle self-publishing, Acadium startup business course with apprenticeship, and SCORE business mentorship to guide me through building startups. These programs will prepare me to launch a writing business as a self-published author and build a community for writers and readers.

What is the biggest challenge you had to overcome to get to where you are now professionally? How did you overcome it?

I want to have full experiences by connecting with other writers in workshops and useful resources to become a better writer or successful writer I could be one day, it can help to mentor and volunteer to help other writers if I know to use my mind and putting the effort to make big difference for others. My writing experience was tough at first, but it got better over time once I got better at writing, grammar is a huge issue for me but I found an easy solution to help me with apps or websites that can help me with grammar, I am not good at grammar but with the help of technology, it helps to become a better writer. A lot of people say that I can’t be a writer or author if I can’t do grammar correctly, but it is never too late to start practicing it in the right way. Once I leave higher education, I want to publish my book in the future for everyone to read it, from little kids to grown-ups, but as usual for big mistake that I made was to rush things without editing them or improving my writing which is always number one mistake that writers or authors do all the time. Publishing and editing a book takes the majority of time to make stories, especially writing and planning it. That’s why it is important to know how much time you need to spend to make the best effort for the stories to make at least something that comes from your heart and not from AI that I assume in today's society everyone uses it instead of creating something as your own. People like those make me sick, I can’t blame the people trying to blame the people suing companies for not accepting real stories that are made from real humans and not such lifeless robots that had no creativity.