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A Weekly Essay Assignment Started My Writing Path
Learning to express myself on paper opened up a whole new world for me
“Words are our most inexhaustible source of magic.”
- J. K. Rowling
I discovered my love of writing in junior high, when my 8th grade English teacher assigned us a weekly exercise to compose an essay in class on a topic of our choice.
I was thrilled! It sounded like fun and I approached the assignment with enthusiasm. But I suspect many of my classmates did not share my excitement.
We scribbled down a draft in pencil first and then made edits and produced a final pristine 2 page version in pen (no mistakes allowed).
We could write about anything we wanted — summer vacation, trips, personal experiences, etc. The freedom and joy of putting pen to paper and writing my thoughts down came easily to me.
In high school I shined in my English classes and also joined the school newspaper to study journalism. I was determined to try out all kinds of writing and experiment to see what I liked the best.
It all culminated in my senior year of college when I decided to change my major to Comparative Literature (English Major, German Lit…
