Lindsey Beever
1/13/05
English 106
Turning Point
There come’s turning point in everyone’s life; a time when a person can see how
they can make a change for the better or keep doing things the same way and forever
remain average. I will never forget my turning point as a writer. There was a significant
event that I can recall which changed me as a writer. I wrote a paper when I was in the
tenth grade about my Grandpa. He was a man that meant the entire world to me and
while I was in the process of writing the paper he died unexpectedly. The paper that I
wrote about my grandpa allowed me to become more detailed, step out of the box in my
writing, and finally it let me express emotion in a paper for the first time.
Including details in my papers before this one was something that simply did not
happen. Whenever I had to write descriptive papers in the past they were always the
hardest for me to do. I am not a very creative person so I would have to sit at my
computer for literally hours brainstorming and thinking of ways to make my writing more
interesting. However, when I wrote this paper for some reason the words just seemed to
flow through me. I began to use a much more broad vocabulary and actually had fun
with the writing. The paper was assigned by my tenth grade English teacher, Ms.
Summerall, she wasn’t a very fun teacher to have; as a matter of fact she was down right
boring. However, when she assigned this paper I will never forget how excited I was for
the first time to have an assignment! The assignment was to write a descriptive essay on
a person who was significant in your life and tell why and how they changed your life
and made you a better person. Right away I knew I was going to write about,my grandpa
of course, after all he was the best person I had ever known.
Not only did this paper
Lindsey Beever
1/13/05
English 106
force me to use great detail but it also made me step out of the box I was in as a writer, or
in other words my comfort zone.
For some reason I have always been a person who holds back when it comes to
writing. I was always scared that if I wrote something to weird or not perfect enough that
people would laugh or think I wasn’t very intelligent. In this paper though, it was
different. I decided that I was going to step out of this box that I had been in and I was
going to write like I knew I could. That is when the words starting pouring through me.
I can remember sitting at my computer at home sipping on a vanilla coke from “The
Frozen Custard” and thinking; “How am I ever going to write this paper as perfect as I
want it to be?” After all, it was something that I knew I was going to show everyone in
my family and I wanted it to mean something. So I decided at that point that I was just
going to write as well as I could and not stop to think about how others would perceive
my paper, but instead how great I thought the essay was. This all brings me to the next
thing that this paper helped me to change as a writer. It not only let me step out of my
box but it also helped me to express my emotions through words.
This paper was assigned on January 20th and was due February the 3rd. My
grandfather passed away unexpectedly on the 25th of January. Talk about writing a
difficult paper! I had started this essay about my grandfather who at the time was alive
and then I had to finish it knowing that he was gone! I didn’t think I would ever be able
to do it. After my grandfather passed away this paper became more than just an
assignment; it was a way to heal for me. I needed some closure; my heart was broken
and I didn’t know what to do so I poured myself into that essay. I worked for so many
days trying to perfect it that I couldn’t even sleep at night. After his showing, I went
Lindsey Beever
1/13/05
English 106
home and the first thing I did was turn on my computer and pour my emotions into the
writing. I had never done that before with any paper. In the past, I had always been
afraid to show my emotions; especially when it came to writing. I was always afraid that
I would turn in a paper thinking that it was a masterpiece and then get it back with just an
average “C” marked in red on the top. However, I pushed that all aside because this
paper wasn’t for the teacher, it was for me and my grandpa.
As I mentioned earlier in the paper, everyone has that turning point in their lives
where they can remain the same or choose to change something about themselves. Well,
I chose to change something about myself and my writing. By writing this paper on my
grandpa it helped me to become a much more creative writer, as well as forced me to
exceed my usual writing, and finally to express real emotion in my papers without fearing
what others were thinking. I got the paper back about a week or so after I turned it in. I
never looked at the grade sheet though. I couldn’t bare to see anyone’s comments on a
piece of my soul that was poured into that paper. I refused to look at the critiquing of the
paper because it meant way too much for me. So, to this day I still don’t know what I got
on that paper, all I know is now that paper lies in the top drawer to my grandma’s desk
and whenever she is feeling down she looks at it and knows that every thing will be ok.
So even if I received an F on that paper I will never know, and that never will matter
because all that matters is that it forever changed me as a writer and a person.