I’ve never considered myself a good writer. All the grammar jargon and rules to remember such as where to simply place a comma in a sentence has always proved to be a challenge. In addition to all of the rules, I was forced to remember FANBOYS and various other acronyms which compounded my defeat. Sitting in my dual enrollment English class I failed miserably over and over again as I attempted to write a decent paper wondering how all of my peers had done so easily. We are like minded, we have the same study habits and class rigor, how were they able to excel and I was not? This lack of confidence didn’t just happen overnight. It has been clear to me since 5th grade that writing simply wasn’t my strong suit. As an 11 year old I stared at the line of A’s on my report card but could not get past the one depressing letter C which was not so surprisingly in the subject of writing. As I sit here today I wonder why I didn’t ask for help back then? I mean written communication is an essential part of life. I suppose I didn’t see it as a huge problem in my adolescent mind. My failure to address and fix the problem sooner has caused me lots of struggles from that point well into my junior year of high school. I continuously failed to grasp the concepts that were becoming increasingly more difficult to the point where my unsuccessful efforts ended up earning me my first and only D on any report card in my entire career as a student. I was now determined to never allow that to happen again. Obviously something had to be done. When I was given the next essay topic I decided not to procrastinate and to take action as early as possible. I wrote my ideas and outline that very same day. The next day I stayed after school with my teacher to discuss my topic and thoughts. I realized that meeting was the beginning of a turning point. While my professor always offered afterschool conferences to discuss essay topics, I had never actually bothered to take advantage, partially due to embarrassment of my skill level and partially because I didn’t see how a couple of hours could change years of mediocracy. I felt as if no amount of help would be able to dig me out of the horrible writing identity I had made for myself. I was wrong. After staying after school numerous days and having long discussions with my teacher who inspired new ways of approaching the topic and organizing my thoughts I begin to gain confidence. I finally received my paper back a few weeks later and to my amazement had received the first A that I could really ever remember seeing on an essay. My very first A on a paper. I had even gotten a higher score than my peers who always seemed to outdo me. Asking and willing to get help was the best thing I ever did to help myself. I beat the odds and am continuously overcoming my writing struggle by applying technique, starting early, organizing my points and confidently executing.
