In a schoolroom located just off the coast of Puget Sound sat a frustrated little first grader named Tatiana. The source of her frustration was the assignment that lay untouched in front of her. It wasn't math or science that plagued the poor child, but the existence of a large circle on an otherwise empty page. The assignment was to write a story using her newly learned vocabulary words. But instead of just writing whatever came to mind, Tatiana was forced to outline her story using a bubble graph. In irritation she asked her teacher if she could just write the story and then do the outline but the teacher insisted on having the outline first because, "That's how real authors do it." This sparked a rebellion inside Tatiana. She was going to write a story without the stupid little bubble graph and publish it just to prove her teacher wrong. Little did she know that her silent declaration would become her lifelong passion.