My name is Aria. I’m a 20 year old Creative Writing major with a Journalism minor at SUNY Oswego. I’m from North Syracuse, a place I really enjoy, despite the mixed reviews. I have a sweet Border Collie Australian Shepard mix named Luna, and two mischievous cats, Simon and Jackson. I love reading and writing, and I enjoy doing the New York Times games with my mom, particularly the crossword.
I’ve also always loved the Percy Jackson series. To this day, it’s my favorite book series. When I was younger, my parents read the original series to my brother and I, and as I got older, I read every single spinoff book that I could find. Those books inspired me to be a writer. I loved how I felt when reading the books, and I wanted to make other people feel that way with my writing someday. I wanted people to ship characters that I created, and feel connected to them, and laugh, and be able to escape into a good book that just happened to be mine.
When I first came to Onondaga Community College, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. My advisor urged me to choose a major to try and assured me that I could always change it. I decided on Creative Writing, a relatively new major program. I ended up sticking with it and really enjoying my classes, professors, and other students in my major. I got into Phi Theta Kappa (PTK), an International Honor Society. I became one of the Vice Presidents of PTK, then graduated early with my Associate’s Degree and transferred directly to SUNY Oswego, where I’m now pursuing my Bachelor’s in Creative Writing with a Journalism minor.