Youth Profile: Student poet helps self, others

ELIDA — While she began writing short stories at age 9, Myriah Schimpf hated poetry. She never read it and thought she was no good at writing it.

Then as a freshman one day, she sat in study hall upset about something happening at home. She began to write as a way to release her anger.

“I just wrote a random poem and have been writing ever since,” the Elida High School senior said.

The poem, “The Past Cannot Be Changed,” is one of three Schimpf has had published. Two of those have been published through the American Library of Poetry. She had a short story about an Indian published as a fourth-grader.

“I was excited to be a published author. I feel special,” she said with a big smile.

While writing helps Schimpf get her feelings out and cope, she hopes it does the same for others. She believes helping people through her poetry gives her purpose.

“I realized that I am not the only person with these issues,” she said. “And that if I could get it out with my writing, maybe other people could see that they are not the only ones too.”

While poetry is her thing now, Schimpf still write short stories. She writes something every day, always having pen and paper readily available. She most likes to write about things she is going through and how to handle things in life. She takes a “part of reality” and turns it into fiction.

Schimpf sometimes gives her poems as gifts, loving the response she gets from the gesture. She wants to continue to add to her 20-plus short stories and hundreds of poems.

Some of Schimpf's poems are about God and faith. Her faith plays a big part in her life. She is a member of the Elida chapter of Teens for Christ and the Fusion youth group at Tri-County Family Assembly of God.

“They are really family-oriented,” she said of the groups. “There are no cliques, no one judges each other.”

Schimpf works at Fazoli's and when has time volunteers at the soup kitchen at New Life Christian International. She prepares food and cleans up.

“I like helping people,” she said. “When I see someone happy, it makes me feel whole inside. I feel like I am worth something.”

Schimpf maintains a 3.0 GPA and is headed to Bluffton University in the fall. She'll major in psychology with plans of becoming a child psychologist.

“I love kids,” she said. “I have always wanted to help people, especially kids. Then my sophomore year, I took an English class and we learned about psychology. That really sparked the interest.”