Undergraduate / English was not my first language; Essay on a novel I wrote [3]

Hey, this is the beginning of my common app essay because I'm not sure how to continue it? Any suggestions are appreciated!

Those were the two last words I typed in the long process of writing a novel. It was 26,789 words-a feat for someone who had previously only written 2000 word stories, at most. Satisfied, I stretched my over-used fingers and my stiff neck, bent over the keyboard as it had been for the past month.

English was not my first language, but it is my favourite. Growing up in a country where the intonations of every symbol were important to the meaning, I grasped the English language as a parched man might grasp fresh water. It came quite easily to me, too, so much so that I began mixing English into my home vocabulary of Mandarin. I might be forgiven, then, for assuming my novel would be brilliant-don't we all wish to be good at the things we love?