'Dream Crazy Big,' Author Tells Romeoville Students

Photo: New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Nielsen autographs one of her books for Vivian Vidad during a visit to A. Vito Martinez Middle School Wednesday. Submitted by Valley View School District.

Life is all about taking risks.

So says New York Times best-selling author Jennifer Neilsen who paid a visit to A. Vito Martinez Middle School in Romeoville Thursday.

“Life is going to want to put you in a box where you are least likely to fail. It is safe. It is predictable,” she told students. “If you want to change that, you must say this is not enough for me.”

The author of the Ascendance Trilogy, including The False Prince, as well as the Mark of the Thief series, urged her audience to be creative in whatever they do, whether it’s school work, writing, graphic arts, athletics or music.

“Creativity is not something you are born with. It is not luck. It is a choice you make,” she said. “Creativity is taking something that is nothing and making it something.”

Emphasizing that creative ideas “are everywhere around us,” the Utah native

assured students “you will be able to find your creative spark and the ideas will flow.”

“Trust yourself. Trust that you are the kind of person who can create,” she said. “You gotta know you are capable of getting yourself to the place you want to go.

“Dream crazy big. Go home and have the dream of your life. People who have little dreams that fit in little boxes live little lives,” Neilsen added. “You are never going to achieve bigger than the biggest dream you have.”