The Real Christen-CC

Every year, children around the world awake from a one eyed sleep, to scurry to their living rooms in anticipation of finding their Christmas dreams come true. Some get baseballs, in hopes that they will one day play for their favorite team, some get dolls that they dress up and make their own. On a similar morning about twenty years ago, one little girl got a typewriter, and so began the adventure that she would create for herself.

I was born in Hartford, Connecticut on November 25. Shortly after my parents divorced in 1989, me and my brother Stephen were more formally introduced to the world of the arts. Since they we lived with our father, we spent most of the time with our mother on the weekends, which were usually occupied by whatever theatrical production she was involved in.

Surrounded by actors and writers at an early age, I was inspired to become a writer and began my own newspaper, The Freestone Flyer, at the age of 9. Following a neighborhood scandal involving the town I grew up in and the local residents, I decided that I would be the one to speak up, when others did not know how. The first edition of the Freestone Flyer, a monthly newsletter, was an early example of my journalistic tendencies.

In following years, I was active in the music community, touring Europe at the age of 16 with the United States Youth Ensembles choir.

At the age of 17, I attended Central Connecticut State University. However, I left after two years to pursue a career with Cydcor Marketing. After completing the management training program in 1 year, I was one of the youngest managers in the company. Upon arrival in Chicago, I decided to leave Cydcor to pursue a career as a writer.

I currently attend Columbia College as a journalism major, and hopes to work in the magazine industry, or as a producer in broadcast news. Having supported myself since the age of 17, I still works full time, presently in the blues industry at a local and renowned blues club in Chicago.