Hello!
My name is April Thompson, I'm an
author and this is my very first Blog! For my first Blog I thought
that I'd give my readers a little glimpse of my life and why this
blog is called, Descent to Wonderland.
After reading the book Alice In Wonderland,
I just couldn't help but say to myself, “This is insane!” With
stories about an impatient, talking rabbit, mad hatter with mental
health issues, smoking caterpillar, and an animal abusing queen with
an army, who wouldn't feel the same way? Well, that's what real life
is too. Of course there aren't any Cheshire cats or soldiers with
playing card bodies, but it is a crazy, dizzying, confusing world
where sometimes I have moments and maybe even years where I just
don't understand anything. Although my Wonderland is
fun, and intriguing, at the same time it's scary and intimidating,
just like the story. No matter how interesting, or not at all
interesting my life is, I'm still so mesmerized by all of it, as I
feel others should be too. So, I really hope that you decide to
plunge down into the rabbit hole with me and follow me on my journey
as I try to understand this insane world. First, I think you should
get to know me a little better. So with that being said, here's my
story...
I was born in
Roswell, New Mexico. Yep, that's where a UFO crashed and gained
national attention. Each year a bunch of eager tourist come here,
hoping to catch a glimpse of a UFO or alien. Unfortunately, that
never happens. The only time I saw a UFO was the first time I tried
marijuana and it wasn’t a UFO. It was an overgrown tree branch.
Anyway, obviously Roswell is a boring little town. When I tell people
I'm still here they frown as if I've just told them I have an
incurable disease. Over the 26 years that I have been here, I figured
out ways to deal with being a fish in barrel, but it wasn't always
that easy.
My school years
were a nightmare. Even the smell of a school now gives me the chills.
From as early as kindergarten, I have nothing but bad memories. From
kindergarten to the third grade, I was physically and emotionally
abused by the teachers. Yes, the teachers. Being the only kid of my
race in the entire class and only four of the entire school of about
five hundred, I was constantly discriminated against. In fact, one
day while I was sitting at the lunch table, a group of older kids
compared me to their dog. The first time I ever felt true hurt, the
kind you feel deep in your soul, was in the first grade.
After the third
grade, my mother bought a house right across the street from a new
school. I wasn't excited for the new school. I was scared. No,
actually I was terrified. I was so terrified, I began slipping into
depression. Old memories and feelings from my past would haunt me
like ghost and demons. This was just the tenth year of my life and I
was so sad, I would cry nearly every night. To make matters worse, I
didn't have just the teachers bullying me anymore. Now I had the
students bullying me as well. I did have a big group of girls that I
would tag along with, but I was too afraid to even hold a
conversation with them. I was afraid that they would turn against me
and that I'd have no one. My way of dealing with this was to
distance myself from others and to keep my mouth closed. That was my
plan to keep myself from getting hurt. So I was quiet. I literally
shut down.
I dropped out of
school in the seventh grade and began home schooling. I tried to go
back to school three times during my high school years but it never
worked. I was just too sad. So, during my senior year of high school,
I was expelled. To this day, no one, until now, knows that the day my
mother told me I had been kicked out of school, I sat on side of my
bed and tried to slit my wrist. I was truly done with this world.
Now here's a
finally funny part to the story. My mother has always been afraid of
sharp knifes. She never kept any in the house when me and my siblings
were kids. The only thing close to a knife, in the entire house, was
a butter knife. I sat on side of my bed crying, laughing and
desperately trying to slit my wrist with a butter knife, but it
wouldn't work. After that moment, that one scary, sad, funny moment,
I decided I wanted to live. I wanted to laugh again and just feel
life. Whether it was happy or sad.
So, I switched
doctors and my new doctor diagnosed me with Severe Depression after
just one visit with her. She offered me "happy pills" but I
refused them. I wanted true happiness, not artificial. So little by
little I started to fix myself. I would challenge myself to say hi to
a stranger, which wasn't always fun because there are a lot of
weirdo’s here in Roswell. Fortunately, I'm not locked in anyone’s
basement so it worked out!
Then I would force
myself to just walk and notice everything, people laughing, baby's
crying, nature. Just seeing anything alive, made me want to be alive.
Eventually I faced my biggest challenge, college. I had received my
high school diploma but I had gotten it online. At this point, I
wanted something more. So I enrolled in college. I actually made a
promise to myself that if I couldn't complete college that I was
going to join the military, which is why most of my books have
military references in it. I have a lot of respect for them and I was
wanting to be in something I couldn't get out of. I wouldn't be able
to cry myself to sleep and stay in bed all day if I were fighting in
Irag or Afghanistan. Also, if I couldn't save myself, I wanted to
help save others.
I went to college
thinking I was going to fail, so I prepared and studied everything I
needed to know before enlisting. However, my first, second, and third
semester I made the Dean's List and eventually I graduated. My
Graduation night was the best night of my life so far. For once in my
life, my family and friends were so proud of me and so was I.
After I graduated,
I decided to do something that every college graduate does, work in a
job that has absolutely nothing to do with their degree! That's when
I started publishing my books. I love writing! I actually wrote a
full length book when I was just twelve years old. Thinking back, I
used to write as a way to deal with my depression. Most of my stories
were fairy tales and fantasies. I would make up all of these magical
lands where I was the queen and nothing could hurt me. As I got
older, my stories became either more serious, or more humorous. The
first book I published was a comedy
about a group of computer geeks who try to survive the zombie
apocalypse and it is called Surviving Geeks.
After that I published The Cutting Club, a
story about a group of teenagers who form a club to justify their
self mutilation. Then came Like Wildfire,
a short story about two small towns that are thrown into madness when
an unknown virus spreads faster then the wild fire they've been
battling. Aside from those three, I have many more to
publish in this coming year. Self publishing my books is definitely
an amazing part of my life. It's something that I will forever be
proud of. However, when all three of my books made the best selling
list, I felt pride and joy like I had never felt before. For me, it
wasn't just the fact that I was selling books, it was more the fact
that I was being heard. I have had times in my life where I felt like
I was a ghost. I could scream and cry all I wanted and as loud as I
could, but I was still ignored and unseen. After having people tell
me how much they love my books and how they want sequel's, I can hear
my own voice and I know others can too.
So, that's what
has happened so far, but why is this blog called Descent to
Wonderland? Well, believe it or not, Wonderland is my
happy place. When I was a little girl I loved stories like
Alice in Wonderland, Pans Labyrinth, Chronicles of Narnia, Never
ending Story, The Wizard of Oz, and especially The Wiz. The
Wiz is just a remake of the
Wizard of Oz but it
has Michael Jackson and Diana Ross in it. Also it has one of my most
favorite songs of all time, Home.
The song Home
is about a girl who wants to go home after learning so much about
herself. Although that song is one of my favorites, I never
understood why she wanted to go home, or back to reality so bad.
I remember once bumping my head against the wall so that I would fall
asleep and wake up in Oz. Thank God I didn't give myself a
concussion!
If I had a chance
to stay in this make believe world where heartache could be fixed
with spells and catchy song and dance numbers, that would be a dream
come true. The only difference in my descent to Wonderland
would be that I wouldn't come back. I'd stay and be a queen and
protect my people forever. Everyone would love me and think I was
beautiful and that I didn’t have one flaw. Death, sickness, and
pain could be easily fix and there would be a new adventure everyday.
I wish that world
existed, but it doesn't. However, in this real life world I live in,
I'm starting to see a lot of similarities to the make believe worlds
I've dreamed about all this time. Our world is just as and maybe even
more crazy than Wonderland and Oz put together. It's
full of tantalizing wonder and hope. It can make you feel happy, sad,
angry, hopeful and hopeless all at the exact same time. So in a way,
we're already in Wonderland. This blog is about the
transcendence from dream land where nothing goes wrong or awry, and
into the madness that is reality. The point of this blog is to help
those who just happen to come by it and who also find this world
sometimes to much to understand. I'm hoping you can draw inspiration
from my adventures and stories and that you'll be able to navigate
your way to a happier life. I'm trying just like you. Yes, you will
be dizzy and afraid as you fall into life or the rabbit hole, but I
promise you can survive it. I did. So then, how about we fall into
that damn hole together? Take my hand!
Yours truly,
April Thompson
