Website: Randal's Sanctuary Celebrates 10th Anniversary by Resurrecting Awards Program

Life comes at you so hard and fast that I didn't even realize I'd had this website for 10 years until August 2008. I first posted this site as a second semester freshman in college. It had a black background, a guestbook, and a dancing baby graphic among other things. Shortly thereafter, I began my awards program (which has always focused more on well-written content over technical design skills) and started soliciting people to take a gander at my site. Writing and the Arts have always been central to my life; I can map my life to this point entirely in literary milestones. There was the Christmas Essay in first grade, your classic "true meaning of Christmas story" that so many children wrote before such a thing became taboo. Then I finished my Civil War research project in fourth grade. I made a film strip that had an audio cassette you played along with it, turning the film to the next slide at the beep. I also started a school newspaper in fourth grade, recruiting a staff and interviewing famous wildlife artist David Plank. My newspaper lasted into the next year; I still have the notes from when my staff decided to mutiny because I was too bossy! In fifth grade my interest in poetry was truly ignited when a Shel Silverstein like poem that I wrote was published in Creative Kids Magazine. I entered the school poetry contest in sixth grade and took first place. My fifth grade teacher said I would have my own poetry book published by the time I was thirty... So while I've been lucky enough to have poems published in several magazines, it took me until now, less than four months before my 30th birthday, to have my poetry book, Leaving Home: Discoveries and Reflections of a Once-Sheltered Heart, ready to go.