Words Do More Than Actions

The keyboard clicks rapidly as senior Lybah Haque types her thoughts across the paper. After working tirelessly, she has successfully completed yet another short story, one she could use for the literary magazine or keep in her personal collection of written works.

Haque has had a passion for words dating back to middle school. She was first inspired to pursue writing more intensely in eighth grade through a new opportunity: creative writing courses in school.

“I had always loved writing since sixth grade, but then I kind of lost it for a second. I started writing again in eighth grade,” Haque said.

Haque decided to further herself in writing and began taking creative writing classes her freshman year of high school. Since then, she has taken creative writing for all four years of her high school experience. For Haque, creativity can strike anywhere and at any time, so when an idea comes to her, she always makes it a priority to turn it into something.

Haque’s literary works range tremendously, from short stories to flash fiction to form poetry.

“I usually write more dark and eerie pieces, like murder mysteries or thrillers, but if it’s not that, then I like to write fantasy and action patience as well,” Haque said. “I write these pieces mostly for myself because whenever I have an idea, I just want to write it down. I like to describe it as I’m writing the pieces that I want to read, like stuff that I look for in other people’s work.”

Haque even wrote and published her own novel on the popular online shopping site Amazon back in the sixth grade, called “The Nightmare Forces (Lost Princess of Asphodelia).”

“[My book was] a very amateur and poorly written book, and I tell people not to read it, but it was honestly the beginning of all of it for me,” Haque said.

Publishing a book in middle school further proved where her writing could take her. Haque began fueling her writing passion not only on her own time or in creative writing classes, but also through the MSD’s literary magazine, as the editor-in-chief of Artifex.

The work Haque has done for the literary magazine are amongst some of the highlights of her high school experience. She works alongside editors Gabi Bravo and Reese Lansman, and adviser Melissa Falkowski, to produce an award-winning product.

In addition to creative writing and the literary magazine, Haque dabbles in photography through MSD’s yearbook program. Haque is a photographer and captions editor. Through this work, she can express herself by recording MSD history as it unfolds. Haque’s creative side is clearly shown through her writing, photography and literary works, but she is also open to future careers in engineering or communications. As a backup plan for her writing career, she is considering double majoring in engineering alongside English.

Throughout high school, Haque has maintained a heavy course load as she takes multiple honors, advanced placement and dual enrollment classes. She has maintained high grades while balancing extracurriculars with semester grades of A’s and B’s, as well as an SAT score of 1420.

Soaring above and beyond in high school places her on the higher end of college admissions. As a hard worker in the classroom and a creative thinker within her extracurriculars, Haque’s passions are opening doors for her future.

In total, Haque applied to 16 universities including Brown University, Columbia University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Emory University and University of Chicago.

“Honestly, I don’t really have a dream college,” Haque said. “I am okay with going wherever gives me the best opportunities, I am just excited for all the possibilities that might come to me in the future.”

However, one college sticks out to Haque: MIT. Due to her advanced high school resume and academic involvement, Haque is a strong candidate for these competitive colleges. Additionally, being interested in creative writing as a Muslim woman of color may help Haque as that particular field lacks representation.

“One thing colleges look for is diversity, and this is also the same for religion and gender as well,” Haque said. “Personally, I think being a person of color, a Muslim and a girl has affected my college admissions because you don’t typically see people like me in the creative writing field. Typically colleges want someone like me in STEM subjects, which is why it makes my college admission maybe a little more different.”

Haque has several goals and ambitions in the future including pushing back the norms of traditional careers, such as those in the business and medical field, and pursuing her writing fully by becoming an author.

“The ultimate goal is to be a writer, writing books and hopefully getting to turn those stories into tales on the big screen,” Haque said.

Haque’s high school ambitions are proceeding to turn into ambitions she will pursue in her future. No matter what she pursues, Haque wants to keep writing a part of her life.