From its crudest forms of expression to the digital scripts of today, writing addresses a fundamental need of us humans: to record our stories and, in doing so, our place in history. I vividly remember the day I learned how to read. It felt as if I had been let in on life’s biggest secret. I could transport myself into any world I wanted with the turn of a page.

I was equally fascinated by Elizabeth Bennet’s confined, yet theatrical, existence inside middle-class Georgian society as Doctor Doolittle’s encounter with Mudface the Giant Turtle. I slipped and slid through fantasy, mystery, historical novels, adventure stories and biographies; the classics and the obscure. It was pure magic.

As I moved from childhood through adolescence and on to adulthood, the power of words continued to follow me. But I was also moved by a desire to do, or be, something meaningful. Like many new graduates entering their working life, I wanted to have an impact.

After struggling to find a job in the post-2008 recession market, supplementing my income with restaurant and bar gigs, I finally landed a dream opportunity at the United Nations.