How I first started writing

My mom owns a business doing mystery shoppings for cruise lines, hotels and restaurants. She has taken me on some of the assignments and taught me how to write about my experiences with the employees’ service and attitudes. We even saw some employees stealing.

I went with my mom on several of the cruise shoppings – to Italy, Greece, Mexico, the Caribbean and three times to Alaska.

At first, when I was much younger, I’d go just to keep her company – no one suspected that a lady with a kid would be checking up on them.

As I got older, I wrote some portions of the narrative reports. Kinda odd that I’m sorta now doing narrative reports on jail – and it makes it doubly hard to be in here. I wish I could instead be going on some more trips.

My mom was also an editor of an international travel magazine – until the financial backer died earlier this year. She’s written for a bunch of other magazines and she had me co-author an article in WaveLife back when I was 15. I got some of my photographs published in magazines too. She even had me join a writers’ organization as a student member.

Ever since I can remember, my mom’s been taking pictures of me. In some photos, I’m frowning - that’s because she’s already taken about 50 pictures of me. A few of the pictures have appeared in magazines such as Florida Game & Fish and the Official Florida Vacation Guide.

Sometimes I lie here and wonder what I’d be doing if I wasn’t in jail. I signed up for two college classes last year at St. Pete College, but didn’t finish them. I’d like to go back and study journalism and photography.

Photo: Me frowning in Santorini, Greece