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David Garcia

Mrs. Tubbs

English 1301-054

July 18th, 2020

Writing Creatively [Rough Draft]

It was June of 2009, Junior year for me, we all received cards to choose our classes and

electives. Jordan, my friend sitting beside me in the crowded lunch hall, shoved his hand in front

of me to point at the words that read “Creative Writing”, and exclaimed, “Hey guys look! A new

class! And it’s by Mrs. Erickson!”. My thoughts were mostly filled with dread, “Ugh” I thought

to myself, “That teacher that gave me a C+ for freshman English/History combination class?”

“No thanks!” I said aloud “Really? Her? I have to deal with her again for senior year? No

thanks! I want to raise my GPA in the final year in high school…”. “Come on! It’ll be fun! It’s a

class we can all take.” He said. My reluctant follower self finally said “Ehhh… Fine…!”.

My senior year started. Creative Writing was my final period for the day, and I was

dreading walking in to see her huge anticipatory smile on the first day of class, which all teachers

seem to share on the first day of class. But when I finally entered the class and saw her new

pulled back hair with blonde streaks that she had dyed her previous red frizzy hair; The feel of

the class was way different than what was felt those freshman days. I was in a classroom with

my friends and the power was all mine to exploit. I grinned with misciviosity, “This is a class

that I can hang with my friends and claim to be ‘studying’ but then just have fun” I thought as

the teacher began to explain the curriculum. Then to my surprise, she mentioned the first

assignment was to just write for 5 minutes without stopping, about anything, didn’t matter no

judgements. “What?” I thought “This is much different than what I was expecting” I thought that
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all English classes were going to be about writing to no end with the dull “Write about a time

when…” prompts and being graded on grammar and punctuation and having a word count higher

than 500 words, as if your paper wasn’t worth their time if you couldn’t think of enough things

to talk about a time when you felt inspired.

This exercise that was introduced gave me excitement, all I had to do was write

something, anything for only 5 whole minutes! I do always like instant gratuity, I like getting

things done quickly -- the american way. I always dread editing a page continuously with no end

just to find out I was rambling the whole time and my words meant nothing to anyone. But this

time I could write about anything and not be judged. So I did the assignment with the class

expeditiously writing for those 5 minutes, it was the first time I can remember actually having

fun and enjoying writing, writing just for me. My extensive knowledge of curse words began

developing the page surrounded by fun internet memes. By the time the sound of the bell rang

for the writing to be done, I sat there with a smirk on my face, satisfied with myself. Then the

teacher asked out loud if anyone wanted to share their free write. Finally, payback for the low

grade I was given from my previous class with her! The instant she asked the question I raised

my hand so high I could swear I was touching the ceiling, as I looked around with my hand in

the air, no one else was, that set the mood for the rest of the year. She of course called on me to

present.

As I began to read what I had written I could hear snickers from around the classroom

and loudest from my friends who knew the memes well. Upon finishing reading my swear ridden

essay, I looked up at my friends beside me and they were all clamoring around me. One of them

said “Wow you’re brave…!” I looked even further and saw some unsuspecting freshman kids in

the class look at me with horror with the words I had used. I laughed and then looked at my
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teacher with a gigantic smile feeling like I pulled the greatest prank, and she must not have

expected such expletives from someone who was so shy in her first class. To my surprise she

wasn’t even slightly upset, she let out an awkward giggle and then said “Alright… Anyone

else?”. The room and I were shocked at the lack of repercussions. I then, for the first time in my

life, became the embodiment of “The Cool Kid”. That moment made me look forward to coming

to class and it gave me encouragement to “break out of my shell” and raise my hand to share my

writings every single day and write more for enjoyment other than for someone to judge.