I love English class. I really do. And today I was loving it more than ever. My teacher, Mr. Williams, was giving us this really interesting assignment. "I want you to think about a career you might be interested in pursuing someday," he told the class. "Then express something about that career in written form. It can be a series of poems, a report, a play, a short story. Be creative. I don't want a report on your prospective career. I want to know why it interests you. How does the career fit into your view of what matters in life? What is it about you that feels drawn to this career choice?" My best friend, Jessi Ramsey, raised her hand. "You mean, we can do anything we want?" she asked when Mr. Williams called on her.

"Well, yes and no," replied Mr. Williams. "I'm giving you a lot of leeway, but I want to know what you're doing. By the end of next week each of you must submit a one-page written proposal telling me what you plan to do. After I've read your proposal I'll have a short conference with you. I'll either give you the go-ahead, or we'll discuss ways to shape the project further." That sounded fair enough to me. One thing I love about Mr. Wffliams is that he treats us like adults. Not many teachers would give a sixth-grade class this much freedom.

Picking a career would be easy for me. I've always known what I want to be - an author of books for children.

I've loved reading and writing forever. When I was ten, I met one of my favorite authors, Amelia Moody, at a book signing in the Washington Mall. The meeting was sort of a disaster. (I got so nervous I burst into tears. Not too embarrassing!) But meeting her and seeing how much her work affected so many kids made me absolutely certain that I wanted to be an author, too.

The day I see the name Mallory Pike (that's me) on the cover of a book will be the greatest day of my life. I can easily imagine it. That may be because I spend a lot of time imagining it.