My Favorite Teacher Helped Me Get Over My Ex

At the end of my freshman year of high school, my boyfriend broke up with me. He was the only boyfriend I had ever had and I was completely devastated. I had always written a little on my own and had been good in English classes, but I never wrote as much as I did that summer. I was hurt, angry, and feeling incredibly insecure. Writing was my salvation. It was the only way I had to express my feelings because I did not really have anyone to talk to about my feelings and concerns. For the entire summer, I moped around and wrote depressing poems constantly. I was miserable.

When school started again, I was not very happy about it at all. I would have to see my ex-boyfriend everyday with his new girlfriend. I tried not to let it bother me, but I couldn’t help it. I spent my time alone during lunch reading or writing pieces about the things I dealt with that day in school and about the boy who spun me into this writing frenzy. My classes, for the most part, were not very interesting and I had lost all interest in being at school. My English class was a writing class and the only class that seemed at all appealing. The teacher, Mrs. F, seemed really nice and I thought that it could be a fun semester.

We were given assignments to write about, but, for a change, the topics we were given were interesting . I was used to writing about Willy Loman, the pathetic hero, and Hester Pryne. Mrs. F gave us topics that I could become engaged with and I actually wanted to do a good job, not just get the assignment done as quickly and as painlessly as possible. The choices we were given for our papers included “solitude versus loneliness”, “never again”, and “learning from failure.” At that time in my life, I could have written epics about all ...

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...ry new things in my work and in my life. I truly admire her and her way of teaching. I am seriously thinking about becoming a teacher because of my experiences in her classes. If I could do for one person what she did for me, then I would feel like I had done my job well. The things I learned in her class have stayed with me and influenced many of the things I have since done in my writing and personally. She taught me how to use writing to understand my own problems, which was the first step for me as a writer. I now try to use writing to illustrate the problems of others and the strange situations people are put into in this culture. Without her influence in my life, I may never have had some of the truly enlightening experiences of my academic life, the ones I am sure to encounter as I continue to develop my writing, and the ones I hope to experience as a teacher.