Kremicki 1 Darren Kremicki Hamalian English 115 7 October 2013 A Newfound Love Every person has their strengths

and weaknesses throughout school and for some its math, maybe its science, or even social studies. English was definitely my weakness throughout most of my school career. English was just a subject that I could not understand or figure out. I was never able to grasp the structure of writing a solid English paper because of my lack of desire to better myself. Until one Literature class junior year of high school where, though I received a sizeable amount of homework, I met an amazing English teacher that changed my perspective of writing forever. My teacher, Mr. Santos, showed me the endless possibilities to express myself through writing. When I was elementary school I never had a real passion for the subject, English. I loved math because I was good with numbers and equations and that led to my love for science. I also had a strong passion for art, but I did not see that I could use these other talents and put them into my writings. I saw English as a subject of writing long essays about stupid books I didnt even want to read. These books were boring historical books and even if it fiction they were about things that would bore a young child. I was a kid who loved playing outside so anything that involved books was lackluster and tiresome. This lack of passion in reading and writing led English to be my lowest grade every year. It was easy to get through elementary and middle school without being good at English, though,

Kremicki 2 because it wasnt as important as the other subjects. It was not until high school where it really hurt me and hurt my grades. My first years of high school are where I learned the true importance of English. I struggled throughout my freshman year with my essay writing. Class was hard because I could not grasp how to improve my bad writings. I felt as if I was giving it a hundred percent, but when I got my papers back there were always little comments saying that there was not substance, it was too vague, it had no argument, etc. I realized that I was not able to thoroughly explain opinions and arguments. It really hurt my GPA and my other classes that involved writing. This process of struggling in class carried on into my sophomore year of high school, where grades started to be incredibly important for college. I knew I had to improve but did not know how. Through these failing grades I learned the significance of writing and how important it is not only for school, but also for life. Rita Saade statement, Seeing my grades plummet, and knowing I was capable of much more, made me get my head together. (Saade 23) related to my mindset nearing the end of sophomore year. I had to improve my writing skills or else my grade would continue to drops and I knew I was capable. It was junior year and that one teacher, Mr. Santos, who helped me become the passionate writer I am today. Mr. Santos, my junior year English teacher, is the main reason I write as well as I do today. His class shaped my work to be more argumentative and clear with opinions and ideas. When the class first started I was not used to the amount of work he gave out, an explication everyday and an essay due every week. The explication had to be in perfect form, any error could result in no credit or a lower grade. I would wonder why a student

Kremicki 3 needed this substantial amount of work. How could this work truly help me and change the way I write? The ways these assignments helped change my writing is through their conditioning. I definitely struggled in the beginning because of my lack of understanding explications. Explications are paragraphs explaining one single quote and elaborating on certain part of that quote. Mr. Santos showed me many ways I could dissect and create many arguments, showing many ideas through one sole quote. After a couple weeks of tedious work I found a groove and was knocking out explications like they were nothing. This was important because now when Id write I was able to explicate certain quotes effortlessly and structure my ideas. I could now find parts of the quote and discuss about them easily because of all the conditioning I had and all the weeks of learning I obtained. Quote explicating set the foundation for my essay-writing career because of its ability to create substance for my essays. This, though, was only a small portion of everything I learned that year. The ideas he gave me really made me look into writing differently. The most important thing that Mr. Santos taught me was that every argument has two sides and it is important to define your argument clearly to create a smooth essay. One of the main reasons I was getting such bad grades was because of my inability to choose a side to argue. I was too vague and neutral so the essays were bland and uninviting to read. Through this statement I was able to understand the different sides of the argument. Not only did this help me choose a side, but also I was also able to see the other side of an argument and use it to my advantage. I was able to be clearer in my essays through the use of taking a certain side over the other when expressing opinions. Slowly I noticed my essay grades to rise from low Cs to the high Bs. I began to gain confidence in my writing and

Kremicki 4 started to find a passion for writing for the first time in my life. Now when essays were assigned I didnt see them as the same old boring assignment but a way to artistically implement myself in to writing by the use of my own opinions and ideas. There was one final test of my ability to write a solid English essay and that was the junior year research paper. The junior year research paper tested all my abilities to articulate a well-versed, supported essay. There was no prompt for this paper but a topic on Puritanism and American Literature and we had to write about certain aspects of that matter. It was hard to start an essay with such a vague and interesting topic. I needed something I could jump off of, something I could start a solid thesis and essay with and the fact that it was a topic had not interest in made it even more difficult. One thing that really helped me was the tutoring with Mr. Santos. Through tutoring he was able to show me options and ways I can fully implement myself into my essay. 2 weeks of tutoring led me to creating a solid essay thesis to read and research. I decided to write on the Puritan ideals and their relation to the story The Scarlet Letter and for the next month I worked tirelessly to create the best essay I could. Researching for hours became the norm that month as I spent most of my free time in the library. I pulled up many different sources to back up my opinions and ideas and I created a well-balanced essay full up substance and quality writing. I knew that this paper would help me either get my best English grade ever or another demoralizing low grade. This research paper tested all my abilities on writing a good, fluid essay through its length and attention to detail. I finished writing early, which allowed me to edit with ease. When the paper was due I finally felt, for the first time, confident to turn in an English paper, no

Kremicki 5 less a research paper, that I did all myself and that I was proud of. I was able to turn in a paper that I put all my efforts and newly found writing abilities into. I received my grade back a couple weeks after I turned it in and I was glad to find out I received a B+ for my effort. Yes, it is not an A but this grade was a huge improvement from a once failing English student. I was happy to end that year with my highest English grade of all my years of school and a newfound love for the subject. From that year on I seemed to handle English a lot easier and find new ways to improve my writing. I found a new sense of perspective through other classmates work because I learned how to create new writing styles and new ways express ideas. Ive grown since my younger years and my writing has matured because with each essay I gain a little more knowledge. With everything I obtained in that class, I went into college confident with my writing. Starting college I felt one step ahead because of everything I learned. I had the training and ability to structure essays in ways other students couldnt. I have no one to thank but the one teacher, Mr. Santos, for challenging me to better myself. Through him I learned to enjoy English almost as an art and found passion in literature because of its countless possibilities. Through the subject I despised he helped me find a newfound love.

Kremicki 6 Works Cited Saade, Rita. Habibi. New Voices. Sandra Jackson and Amy Reynolds. Plymouth, MI: HaydenMcNeil, 2013. 22-24. Print.