About Me… Again
Hi. What’s up?
Welcome! It’s nice to meet you. This is my second “About Me” article on Medium because I decided my first one wasn’t as accurate now that about a year has passed. Maybe I’ll make this into a tradition. One “About Me” at the end of each year?
Anyway, the whole point of this re-introduction is that I’ve changed (a lot) over the last year! So don’t let the other “About Me” determine who I am now (honestly, it just sucked.) Why let something you wrote a year ago tell what kind of a person you are now?
So, let’s start at the beginning…
Hello. I’m Maya. And you’re someone who had the human decency to click on this article. Maybe it’s because you know me. Maybe it’s because you don’t. Either way, thanks!
Disclaimer — since this whole thing is “about me,” allow me to be very self-centered for a bit by using way more sentences starting with “I” than I normally would. :)
Well, I guess we should begin with the most important aspects of exactly who I am. That’s pretty hard to sort out, but we’ll begin here:
I have asked myself this question way too many times, and there’s no straight answer —
Who Am I?
I’m a dreamer, a learner, a look-to-the-future visionary.
I’m an artist, an author, a let’s-see-what-happens creator.
I’m a student, a hard worker, a try-and-try-again builder.
I’m a motivator, a kind soul, a do-good helper.
But most of all, I’m human. Humans make mistakes, then learn from them. Humans cry for each other and laugh with each other. Humans go through tough times and get each other through them.
I’ve grown in many ways over the past year (a very human thing) — precisely the reason I’m writing this in the first place. I have become more mature (I think? I hope!), refined my writing and creative skills, learned some lessons, gained job experience, strengthened my leadership and teamwork skills, met new people, and more.
Bio
That was all the stuff on the inside. There’s a lot of stuff on the outside of a person that others tend to notice first (the cause of a lot of rather rude assumptions and opinions.)
I’m 12 years old (13 soon) and in 8th grade. I am a proud Taiwanese-American based out of California, USA.
I’ve been writing on Medium since December of 2020, so I guess this is my Medium-writing 1 year anniversary! I write a bunch of random stuff — poems, letters, personal stories, and more.
You might be wondering, “Hey, aren’t you a bit too young to be here?”
The answer is no! Don’t let age fool you. I might be more ambitious and hard-working than some individuals twice my age, if I may say so myself.
Which brings me to our next topic…
My Experience & Jobs
You know how I said, “don’t let age fool you?” Here’s why.
students x students
I currently have a job as Social Media Coordinator/Graphic Designer & Community Engagement Lead at students x students, a Medium publication run by and comprised entirely of middle school and high school students. We’re focused on providing a platform to uplift student voices and give them greater confidence and fulfillment in their writing. I take care of graphic designs for our social media and help manage our writer Discord.
Check out the publication here. Plus, take a look at our socials:
Twitter: @sxtudents
Instagram: @sxtudents
Linkedin: @sxtudents
If you’re a middle/high school student and are interested in writing, consider becoming a contributor and adding your stories to or writing for our publication.
Learn more & apply here. Email us at sxtudents@gmail.com.
A few weeks after I started writing on Medium, atharvgups, one of my classmates, told me about students x students, which his brother, Ariv Gupta was a co-founder of. I was immediately intrigued and became a writer for the publication. Shortly after, I saw that I could apply to become an editor for the publication, which I did become after applying and being interviewed. Soon after, I became the graphic designer and social media coordinator for students x students. Then, after we founded the Writer community Slack, I was given the position of Slack Engagement Lead, which later turned into “Community Engagement Lead” when we switched from a writer Slack to writer Discord. I’ve been working for the students x students team for nearly a year now, and I am so grateful for the opportunity I have been given there.
TACL-LYF
I have also recently started interning for the TACL-LYF marketing team. TACL-LYF is a Taiwanese-American youth summer camp exploring leadership, identity, and culture. Details are still to be worked out, but I’m so excited to help out.
And More to Come
As you can probably tell by now, I’m an extremely ambitious person. Sometimes I feel like my brain doesn’t match my age. I mean, at 12 years old, I have two volunteer jobs. At times, I think to myself, “I wish I was older, so I could get a ‘job job’.” These volunteer jobs I have now have and will continue to give me experience that will benefit me for the future when I can apply for a paid (or not) job. But for now, I’m stuck here. While I am, though, I’m making the best of it.
My Interests, Passions, & Hobbies
Sometimes it’s a good thing that I’m so young. I have more free time on my hands to do the things I love and to find out what those things even are.
Even though I might have more jobs than a normal 12-year-old would have, that doesn’t mean I still don’t do all the things one would do. I still watch TV and play video games. I still chat with friends and make jokes. I still whine and get annoyed. I still have to do homework and study for tests.
So, let’s talk about my interests, passions, and hobbies, starting with the obvious one.
Writing
I love to write (obviously.) What kind of middle schooler would voluntarily spend their Winter Break writing an About Me article (for the second time, might I add) if they didn’t love writing?! And of course, I don’t just write on Medium. There’s somewhat of a fence around what you can write on Medium. But here’s what’s generally in my writing arsenal: fictional (usually fantasy) stories, narratives, novels (that I work on nonstop for about two weeks and then never work on again) poems, song lyrics, personal stories, Medium articles, the occasional rap, and more. Naturally, most of these are not seen by people other than me. That’s the great thing about writing. It’s yours, until you decide to share it. It belongs to you. It’s your creation. It’s something to feel proud of, because you made it. This is why Medium is the perfect place to share your writing. It’s easy and accessible for publishing your work, even if you’re a young student like me. (And students x students makes getting my work out there as a student even easier!)
Reading
Somewhat related to my love for writing, I also love reading books! I hope you could tell, but I’m a big bookworm. I usually read fiction novels — I think they’re far more interesting than non-fiction, but that’s just me. One of my favorite book series is Harry Potter. I know, cliche. But I read the books a few years back (can’t remember my exact age, it might have been when I was 10?) and since then I’ve been completely immersed in the world of Harry Potter. I’ve reread the books 5 times and at the time of writing this, I’m currently on Book 4, on the 6th reread of the series. I hadn’t reread it in about a year (and a half?) so I decided I should do so. This isn’t to say I don’t love any other books, though. I’ve read a lot of great books in my lifetime, and hope to read many more (and maybe even publish one of my own!) Among my other favorite book series are the Hunger Games series, the Divergent series, and the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.
Visual Art
Art is another one of my passions. I enjoy a variety of visual arts—drawing, sketching, painting, digital art, graphic design, and more. I typically do traditional art, but I dabble in digital art using an app called Procreate. My favorite art medium (get it hehe) is probably graphite pencil, but this will most likely continue changing. My specialty is realistic drawings and portraits (I went through a whole drawing eyes phase), but as I’m still learning, my preferred art subjects, style, mediums, and materials tend to change. The great thing about art is that, like writing, anyone can do it, and you don’t have to be talented at it or have the most expensive tools to do so. The most important part about art is that you enjoy it. Through my art journey, I have learned a lot of new things, refined my skills, and created things I’m proud of. I love trying new things when it comes to art. If I see something online that I want to try, I’ll try it!
Music
Last big thing — music is a huge part of my life. And I can’t talk about music without talking about the Beatles! The Beatles are by far, my favorite band of all time. Listen to my favorite Beatles songs here. I also play an instrument, the ukulele! I’m self-taught for now but I’ll be getting a “real” ukulele education soon in 2022. I also love to write song lyrics, sing to myself, or sing with a group of friends.
Other
Those are all the main things, but of course, I still do other stuff! So I’ll go over some of those things briefly now…
I’m a part of various fandoms related to books, movies, TV shows, and video games. I already mentioned my favorite books, but now let’s talk about film and shows. My favorite movies and TV shows include the Harry Potter movies, the Star Wars movies, the Lord of the Rings movies (still have to read the books…), the Marvel Cinematic Universe (I’ve watched almost all of the movies and shows), and the Hunger Games movies. In my free time, sometimes I play Genshin Impact or Brawl Stars (the only two video games I play.)
If you’ve made it this far, hooray, and thanks! I’m glad you’ve taken an interest in who I am. But of course, this is just the Maya of 2021. The future Maya of 2022 will change in ways I can’t know right now.
Happy New Year! Bring it on, 2022! 🎉
Until we meet again,
Maya
Maya S. is a young writer, artist, and student based in California. She is currently an editor for a student-run Medium publication called students x students. Maya loves writing fiction stories, poems, songs, and narrative stories, and is also a die-hard Harry Potter fan. Her hobbies include writing, reading, drawing, painting, crafting, and hanging out with friends/family.
