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Sharing a piece of your writing is a terrifying experience. I should know because for the past four years I have been a regular contributor to my high school's literary magazine and there was always that moment where I would hold my breath while the staff was voting whether or not to accept my piece. If a piece was rejected you had to remind yourself that it was nothing personal, the staff could have different aesthetics than your own, or that maybe the piece should have been edited more before submission. Still, when it's your piece covered in edits you can't always keep a clear head. Writing anything is like baring a piece of your soul to anyone and everyone who can read. It's a stomach clenching, gut wrenching experience that I don't recommend but is definitely a necessary evil. However, even submitting my poems to lit mag didn't compare the the nerves I felt when sharing the first 54 pages of "Guardians" with two of my friends. This story is the product of 11 months of sweat, blood, and tears (not exactly but I exaggerate for emphasis). To top off the insane amount of work I have already put into "Guardians" it is the first time that I have really tried to write something as complex as this story. And since I'm obviously my biggest critic I had no idea what my friends' reactions would be. To my shock they both liked it. And no, I'm not being self-deprecating it's just that I know that first drafts are always far from perfect and are almost never like the final product. So I was happy yet surprised when I got positive reviews from both of them not in the least because they were both teenage boys and the book is geared mainly towards preteen girls. Once I got over my shock though I was very happy that I had gotten positive feedback. Obviously neither of my friends are literary critics or anything but it was good to know that someone thought that I had some kind of author potential. So to continue the trend of poorly ending posts I guess I'll just say that showing that first person is nerve-wrecking but could potentially pay off in the end so it's totally worth the risk.