Back in October 2019, I published my first book, Children and Taboos. While I didn’t get the chance to market (thanks 2020) as much as I would like, it was an achievement that kept me giddy during my more frustrating moments.
I did, however, get the chance to put my poetry anthology in the Victoria Public Library. Once COVID-19 hit, I couldn’t even visit my family, so checking to see if it was actually there was the least of my worries.
I finally got the chance to visit recently (while trying to be as safe as possible), and the feeling I got from seeing my book in a place where I spent my entire childhood nearly brought me to tears. 7th grade Christy, a kid dragging bags bursting with books, with her three sisters in tow, could not have known that more than a decade later, her book would be sitting on those shelves.
Hoarding manga, devouring YA novels, rereading Percy Jackson and Harry Potter, checking out free DVDs: it was paradise. When we would act out, our parents would threaten us with a ban from the library.
As I left the public library and drove back to Houston, I couldn’t help but think that another little girl was somewhere between those shelves, dreaming of the future and other worlds like I once did. I just wanted to tell her, “I made it. It’s possible. And you will too.”
Christy Leos 