BY MACKENZIE DOLAN
Allow me to introduce myself. I am Mackenzie Dolan and I am a new member of the X team. I am 23 years old and am attending the wonderful University of Utah. My years at this institution will be ending in May as I will be graduating with an English major and a Psychology minor.
It is my dream to write stories and to give a voice to those crazy characters running around my head all day. I have always enjoyed picking up a book, getting caught up in a new world, and making unbelievable new friends. However, I haven’t always wanted to be a writer. My desire to become a writer actually only came two years ago. Before that I had very different plans for myself.
In school I always loved my English classes and the assignments we had from research essays, poetry, short stories, and book reports. But my plans for my future career dealt more with animals. I have always loved dolphins and had a desire to work with them. So in junior high, I made the decision that I wanted to be a dolphin trainer.
At first it was a dream of mine to work in Sea World, but, after doing a lot of research and talking to people in high school, I decided that I wanted to work with the Navy in their dolphin program. So I worked hard getting as much animal experience as I could, like interning at the aquarium and volunteering at the zoo. In high school, I also decided on a Psychology degree and did that for two and a half years.
In the middle of my junior year at university, I took a break from school and went to Japan for eighteen months for a volunteer service mission for my church. While I was there, I taught English class and told some made-up stories of mine to some friends. It was then that I decided that I wanted to change my focus, so when I came home, I switched my major to English.
I am still learning a lot of things since I have jumped on the bandwagon late, but I am enjoying this amazing art. Creating new worlds and deep characters is so exciting, and the editing process is so rewarding and thrilling. I love watching a story, whether it is my own or someone else’s, grow into a spectacular masterpiece. Although I am new and still learning, I have strong desire and am excited to be surrounded by wonderful authors and editors who can teach me all their wisdom.
This will be a great adventure!
Mackenzie Dolan is getting her feet wet in our marketing department as a social media intern. All those overworked intern stereotypes? That’s Mackenzie. Except, we don’t send her out for coffee or to pick up the drycleaning.