Newbie alert! 

I am a twenty-something accounting slave eight to five, student in the sciences nights and weekends. 

Creative writing exercises have long been a favored method to de-stress, though presenting them to foreign eyes will be quite new. I have a thick hide; however, do not be bashful in your criticisms. I will appreciate your honest appraisal. Of course, I've toyed with the idea of writing a novel—what avid reader hasn't? Indecision and a lack of life outside of work has kept this goal unrealized. 

My online activity will be sporadic, at best, during the school term. I am here to read as well as write, but I'll be painfully slow about it. Bear with me, please. 

"He who writes carelessly confesses that he does not attach much importance to his own thoughts." Arthur Schopenhauer