User:Nikicola777

I was born and raised in sunny Southern California where I spent my childhood singing along to Mariah Carey and writing songs in pursuit of a pop star career.

During my elementary private school years, I was involved in the school and church choir. I wanted to be a singer so bad that I even got a few friends together to start our own music group. Needless to say, it didn’t work out. They made fun of the first verse I ever wrote, which went something like this: “Believe in yourself / You can succeed / Only when you try / And when you try / You will find / That you had belief all along”. I was damn optimistic for a 10 year old.

By the time I reached the ripe age of 16, I had fulfilled my childhood dream of recording my own song in a recording studio. After calling a few different music producers I found in the directory of an issue of Music Connections magazine, I finally approached Timothy Simms of New Millennium Record Groups with my lyrics. He agreed to take me on as a project and with him, I recorded two original singles: “Head over Heels” and “Face of Destiny”.

During junior high and high school, I was somewhat of an athlete and played flag football (8th grade), basketball (7th-9th grade) and softball (6th-12th grade). As far as academics, I was really good at Math and Spanish, but my favorite subject was definitely English. I’ve always had a knack for words and a natural ability to convey my feelings into the written word. Writing had always been my ultimate form of self-expression and helped me cope with my parents’ divorce as well as the series of events that followed.

Throughout high school, I continued singing and wrote at least a dozen song lyrics. Every year, I’d perform at the school talent show and at the local church carnival. My mom’s friend once paid me $100 to sing at her son’s birthday party. It was an embarrassing gig (let’s be real, I’m no diva), but I still had fun pretending to be a rock star.

By the time I graduated high school from West Torrance High School in 2003, I decided it was time to turn over the mic and give up my childhood dream of becoming a singer/songwriter. Upon my first year of college at Cal State Long Beach, I had to make a decision that would forever alter my path as a writer – do I major in creative writing or in journalism? I opted for the latter believing that a career in journalism was far more practical in the “real” world.

During college, I joined a sorority, worked my ass off putting myself through college and occasionally wrote as a contributing writer for the Daily Forty-Niner college newspaper until I eventually became a regular columnist with my own caricature (which was way cool, might I add).

Since becoming a “recession grad” in late 2008, I have written as a dating and relationships blogger, a contributing writer to a local community newspaper and a niche magazine, and as an online singles and dating columnist. And this is only the beginning of my story as an aspiring author, as I find myself balancing between work and play, love and career, Corporate America and the California dream. I’m teaching myself everything they forgot to teach me in college.

During my free time, I enjoy a good book, a good music CD, a good movie or even a good TV show. I love to sing karaoke every chance I get. An athlete at heart, I also enjoy playing sports or engaging in outdoor activities that get my endorphins going.

There’s so much more to this story, but I’ll let you discover the underlying stories that make up the idiosyncrasies of my life on your own. In the meanwhile, I’d like to thank you for being a part of my journey.