Earlier this year, I applied to the Ventura County Arts Council to become the next Ventura County Youth Poet Laureate. A youth poet laureate is a young writer who works to make art and poetry more accessible for their community through workshops and volunteer projects that they organize and lead. There have been several previous poet lauretes all fabulous and talented young ladies.

Now anyone who has read a word of my blog knows how much I love writing and sharing art with people. I believe art and particularly poetry is the key to connection with ourselves and others. I am so proud my county and home are taking part in this goal in partnership with Urban Word and California poets. So when I found out about this opportunity I jumped at it. In my application, I shared several of my best poems, talked about my school performance, my volunteer work, and my experience with performing.

A couple of months went by and no word. So I figured they ended up picking another candidate or that I got mixed in the shuffle of applications. It is nothing unusual, just comes with the territory. That’s when I received an email saying that I had made it to the final round of judging and was one of the top three candidates.

Earlier this week we all came together for an interview and to perform some of our poems. I have to say I am really impressed by the other two candidates. They were obviously very passionate and quite eloquent. This county would be in good hands whoever the board decides. Even if at the end of the day I’m not the next poet laureate I am just honored to have become a finalist and I look forward to whatever comes next in this process.