WR115 01
Professor Noguere
24 November 2014
I am looking at this blank computer screen and I am trying to think about what I am supposed to do with this essay but I know I am overthinking it. This happens all the time with essays and every thing else too I guess. I think about what it is that the teacher wants to see out of it, then I try and decide what I can do that relates or goes along with what the teacher wants and what I can do to get a good grade. I think that prompted essays aren’t really beneficial for young writers like myself. I think that they are restricting our imagination. For example, maybe I have so much going on in my life and maybe I just want to write it down on paper, all of it. Every thought that goes through my mind every emotion I am feeling, I write it down, and then after I write it all you look what is all there. On that page would be truth, emotion, and a story. When a student gets limited to a list of 5 things to write about they become blank. They are limited on their imagination and just write a mediocre essay that will get them maybe an A or B, but they don’t care because it’s not a paper that they are truly passionate about. At the same time when you give a student free reign like this to write whatever they want, sometimes they do have a lot going on in their life and sometimes they just want to write about it but they are restricting themselves. They restrict themselves because they just don’t want to deal with the truth. I have learned from experience that sometimes it is a hell of a lot easier to mask your emotions and just pretend that your problems aren’t there. If you write them down the truth is not only being let out but is being screamed out loud to not only the writer but any body who reads it. Sometimes the student just doesn’t feel comfortable with their teacher or peer seeing their struggles.
Many students don’t feel comfortable with other student or teacher reading about their problems in life or their true thoughts. I know this because I am one of those students. I used to love writing and reading. I mean I still do but it’s hard for me now after everything that has happened. You obviously don’t know what has gone on, but for a quick recap my sophomore year was very rough for me… I got three severe concussions in a month I had strep throat 9 times in one year. I found out I had gal stones and got my gal bladder removed, I got my tonsils and adenoids removed, I got in two car accident, neither my fault, which totaled two cars, and in the process of all this I was out of school for 2 months straight and just in that school year I missed probably 3-4 months of school in all. Before all that had happened I was in the process of leaving my group of friends because I wasn’t happy with the people they were becoming and the choices they were making so I had no friends through all of this. Due to all the concussions I had to go to brain therapy for a year after that and it affected my memory, focus, and basically everything about my life. I could never remember anything, I used to be excel above other students my age and now I found myself struggling in school and not remembering what we learned and finding myself not being able to focus in class. I noticed my grades dropping along with my life. I spiraled into a terrible depression, which many people still don’t know about. I had no friends, no
