Claudia Messina is a seventh grader at Rachel Carson Middle School. She officially found her passion for writing in elementary school when her fifth grade teacher made all the students participate in NaNoWriMo. Although the goal for this project was to write a fictional story with a certain amount of words, She learned more about herself as a writer than she did actually focusing on the project. "Being a seventh grader is hard," she says "especially when you are like me and have a tough time balancing your self thoughts, school work, and social life. To all you people out there who also have a tough time expressing yourself and would rather stay home and listen to music than actually face the fact that you have responsibilities, you are not alone."