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Karin Lord Professor Jessica Camargo English 111-43 How Writing Affects My Life As the lights in the auditorium dim and the noise from the crowd dissipates I begin to feel my stomach twisting in knots. Sheer terror falls over me as I peel back the curtain just enough to see the rows of people anxiously waiting to watch our play. The other announcer and I meet at center stage as the music for the first scene fills the silent room; together we pull the curtain apart, letting it close behind us and step out into the spotlight. The music fades and I realize the squeaking of the curtain being pulled open is my cue to begin my first line. I suddenly broke out into a cold sweat, the hair stood up on the back of my neck and it had felt like my soul had left my body for just a brief moment. Snap out of it I thought to myself, and my body finally began to cooperate as I slowly maneuvered my way across the stage while saying Welcome everyone to Concord Middle Schools production of Shakespeares, The Tempest. I had done it, and not just my first line, there wasnt a single line I had missed throughout the entire play! When it was time for curtain call everyone lined up in their designated places, walked out and met at center stage and then took their bow. For me, that wasnt enough. I needed to thank our drama teacher and coach, Mrs. York, publically for the wonderful guidance and advice she had provided through the preparation of this production. Her patience with all of us when we were learning our lines was abundant and I couldnt have been more grateful. When my class schedule came and I saw I got Mrs. York I was ecstatic. I hadnt ever been this excited about English before. I was confident in the fact that my writing was decent and

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I had constantly made good grades on all my previous papers. English was my pride and joy up until this point. I was nervous about what I was going to learn. After I read the syllabus I learned that we would be focusing on writing structure, sentence starters and vocabulary. I have never been a strong writer, it has always taken me a long time to get started. It was difficult for me to focus on one task at a time, especially if I knew something else needed to be done, straightened up or just put away. beep, beep, beep, beep was all I heard at 5:00 in the morning as my eyes began to open, it was like my body knew what time I needed to be up. Time to wake up, its the first day of school. My mother yelled from her bedroom. I flung the covers off on to the floor, un-tucked my arm from beneath my pillow and leaped out of bed, and ran into the bathroom grabbing my towel for my shower on the way in. I knew I had exactly 10 minutes to shower, 10 minutes to dry my hair, another 20 minutes to straighten my hair, which left me exactly 50 minutes to try on every outfit I owned and find the perfect one. I was excited to learn whatever Mrs. York had in store for us. Over the start of the semester we learned about how family and friends impact our writing and how our emotions make every story that much better. I never thought about how the things and people around me affected my writing but when I sat down and truly thought about it everything made sense.The concept of writing became even clearer as the semester went on and I learned more about myself during the process. I was challenged like I have never been challenged before and it forced me to enhance my writing and thought processes. Mrs. York gave us an assignment to do over Christmas break; Write a 3 page paper about a major influence on your life. I couldnt wait to challenge myself even more in my

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writing. I found it difficult to actually focus on a person to write about because there had been so many people that had helped me get to where I was in my life at that point. However Mrs. York had given me the previous papers to look at so that I could see her comments and use those to write my new paper with and use what I learned. It was a challenge to remember everything I learned that week, but I knew after I wrote that paper I would be an even stronger than I was before. I must have spent at least 4 hours a day writing and erasing constantly trying to make sure what I wanted to say was perfect. Then I remembered one thing Mrs. York said to me Never put your pencil down so I didnt. When my rough draft was finished and decent enough to type up I decided I would email Mrs. York and ask for her feedback on my rough draft so far. All she replied with was, You can do better! I buried my head in my paper, going back over all the notes I had taken in class, I even went so far as to get additional information from different online websites. I wanted to go out with a bang, I needed to feel like I had pushed myself to become a better writer. I didn't want to let Mrs. York down. I added in a lot of vocabulary and a ton of personal experiences I shared with my mom, "I never really understood why my mother hurt so bad but continued to love us the way that she did. My mother was a saint, she would do anything to help anyone even if she herself had nothing. I was 6 years old when we took my first trip to the fair, my mom was in a wheelchair from her car accident but she still went on the Ferris Wheel with me. I couldn't believe the strength my mom showed, even with all the pain she was in- and you could see it on her face." I got extremely personal in my essay and it hurt me a little to share about something that affected me so much, but it was the truth. When we got back from break I couldn't wait to get my grade. A week went by and I still hadnt heard anything about my paper. I was beginning to think she had forgotten about our

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grades, after all the semester would be ending soon. However the Tuesday two weeks after break when we came back in to class there were these white pages on our desks and a note on the whiteboard Please take a seat and look over your graded assignment from Christmas break. By this point I was tired of the knotted feeling in my stomach so I just sat down and flipped my paper over and in lime green letters (which happened to be my favorite color) there was a 98 on the top of my paper with a note from Mrs. York that read Told you so!! I have never been more proud in my life than I was at that moment. It took everything inside of me not to bust out in tears in front of my peers. At this point I was unstoppable. I couldnt believe everything I had learned in my English class. Everything from daily writing in my daybook, vocabulary and sentence structure to writing 3 page papers enhanced my understanding of writing by 150 percent. Because of Mrs. York, her kindness, and her patience I had the tools I needed to succeed in writing papers of any type. Nobody could stop me; writing was my new form of expelling feelings and documenting ideas. I remember everything I learned in her class and I still continue to write in my daybook Karins Daybook Continuation x 9 As I look back now I am thankful for the time Mrs. York spent with me personally, discussing my writing styles and vocabulary as well as topic discussions. Mrs. York pushed me to do better and encouraged me every step of the way. I will never forget the way that Mrs. York impacted my writing and looking back now it is ironic that her original topic Write a 3 page paper about a major influence in your life is coming back around. I guess it is true, history does repeat itself!