ASHIL SHAO

Sophomore

“Something I don’t really tell people is that I like writing stories with my friends. It’s fun to come [up] with worlds and characters and have them explore this world that you’re thinking of in your head. Or going through what someone else’s life could be like. We started doing this since fourth grade, and it’s something we’ve been doing for a while. It taught me that starting over is OK. We have had so many stories that were 10 plus pages and we were like, ‘No, we’re going to do something else.’ Starting over is OK, so it doesn’t hurt to do something new. But [eventually], we made this pact three years ago that we’re going to finish one story. It’s really fun because it’s just something I can do when I’m bored or when I need a break from life. It’s a nice break because you’re just doing stuff that comes out of your mouth; there’s no intensive thinking. You’re just like, ‘This pops into my mind and I’m going to type it out on this Google document.’ I’ve also made a few character designs for some of our stories and it was really fun being able to combine writing the stories and art together.”