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Nixon Long
Mr. Moberly
Writing 001-31
10/09/13
Not Everything is Easy
There’s always a first time for everything and high school is no exception. I survived my
first year in high school and successfully made it to 10th grade. I honestly believed I could easily
breeze through the year without any troubles unlike 9th grade where I had to learn how to write in
MLA format. First day of school, everything was going really well until I made it to my last class
World History. I was foolish to believe everything was going to be easy.
I’m just ready to leave, go home and play video games before the school year picks up.
To my surprise, only 15 minutes into my new history class and as my teacher Mr. Lehavi was
introducing us to the class he mentioned that the class will have to write a few document based
questions (DBQ) essays. I was just hoping that a DBQ was a regular essay just like the rest of the
class since everyone learned about MLA format from our previous English class in 9th grade. To
make matters worse, I didn’t know Mr. Lehavi but he knew me. He expected so much more from
me than anyone else just because he knew all my brothers and sisters.
The pressure let alone the intensity. The class hasn’t even had its first lecture and Mr.
Lehavi just starts talking to me as if I know him. He clearly knew a lot about me, first time I met
him and he asked me personal questions about my brothers and sisters how they’re doing. I
remember responding, “They’re doing fine Mr. Lehavi.” And the first thing he says back, “Don’t
call me that, don’t give me that bullshit. Don’t call me Mr.” First day and I already messed up.
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The class laughed and had fun with Lehavi saying he’s cool. I was seriously afraid, I didn’t know
what to do or say but I just answered his questions until he let the class ask questions. There was
one thing on everyone’s mind and that was the essay. What did he mean by document based
question essay, was it just a regular essay? He goes on to explain that a document based question
is a form of writing created by the Advance Placement and it is graded on a scale of one to nine.
In order to get a good grade a strong thesis and argument were required as well as using the
documents provided as your evidence. Creating a thesis revolving around the given question was
hard enough, but the essay required much more in depth detail about the current time frame in
history which the documents reflected. Understanding who wrote the document, when it was
written, and where it was published didn’t help either. Figuring out whether a document
supported one claim or another was difficult in some cases. I had to figure out how to structure
the essay to support my argument using two to three documents per paragraph, not to mention
quoting the document and citing it within the paragraph. It was extremely difficult when a
document was a picture because each person has a different view. I dreaded the moment the day
had to come where I would write my first document based question.
Seriously the class was called “World History”; I wasn’t in the AP European class. Why
was I even writing this? I didn’t even need to write the essay until later in the year but it scared
me! There was just so much I didn’t understand. Even the length of the essay scared me. The
essay just had to be anywhere from three pages to seven pages maximum, at the time I couldn’t
even fathom doing the bare minimum. The class only had to do two document based questions!
Another thing that frightened me was that if I had failed to turn one in, I failed the class. How
does that not scare someone? The class hasn’t even had its first lecture and I’m just sitting in
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class thinking “DAMN”. But just like everyone else, I just ignored it and did all my homework
and studied for tests hoping to get a good grade and trying to forget about the essays.
Time flew, it’s suddenly June and the first essay was assigned. Everyone was scared and
to be honest I was glad everyone was. Luckily for us, since everyone was scared, Lehavi walked
us through how to do the first essay. Well he practically wrote it for us! I was extremely happy
he did that, I practically just used his entire essay structure as my own which he allowed. All I
had to do was add this document here and there and I was finished. I even got an A on the essay,
I was happy. But once again, the fear set in. Another essay was assigned as soon as Lehavi was
finished grading the first essay. An entire month or so after the first essay was due and our final
essay was due in a few short days. Just four days before our final grades were put into the
computer, that’s what scared me.
The topic of the last essay, to me at the time was difficult, Western European Unity from
1946 to 1989. That’s a lot of history to remember and use in an essay that has to be at least three
pages. To make matters worse, I didn’t do my own essay I used his example because he allowed
us to do so. That was my mistake and that was my downfall. I had no idea what to do when I was
completely on my own for the second essay. Because of all my fear, not to mention laziness, I
failed to do the essay.
Two days before final grades were due Lehavi was talking to me, I will never forget
those words said to me. I still haven’t. Lehavi told me, “I was expecting so much more from you
Nixon, you’re a bright kid. But you know what happened? The laziness got to you, and you let it
win.” In front of the entire class, I just felt like shit. Is there a better way to explain my feelings
at that point? Probably not, but for whatever reason I responded to him saying, “If you really
want my essay Lehavi, I’ll turn it in tomorrow.” I got lucky again. But he also gave me more of
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an incentive to do my essay, “If you fail to do the essay this time, I will not allow you to take the
final in the Political Science 5 class on Friday.” Some incentive, it was pass one class and have a
chance to pass another or fail both in one go.
Later that night, after all of my procrastination by playing games all day after school, I sat
on my computer rereading the previous essay I turned in. Something happened and I have no
idea what but I never questioned it. From turning in bare minimum on the first essay I wrote a six
page DBQ. I was happy with it; I understood it and I felt all the fears of writing an essay
disappear. The following morning I walked into an empty classroom where only Lehavi sat on
the computer grading papers and I turned in my essay. I went to my first class of the ending
school year to enjoy the party before summer break and toward the end of the class a student
came in looking for me. Lehavi wanted to see me, and so I went to the class. Talking to a number
of seniors that year about graduation he stops to tell me in front of everyone, “This was the best
fucking DBQ I have read all year! I mean it was fucking genius.” I passed with an A.
A year’s worth of work, I was ready to throw it all away because of my laziness. To me,
it was like an American Underdog story; against all odds I managed to overcome my problems
and successfully pass my class. It wasn’t easy, but I did it. My essay had a good thesis stating a
specific cause to Western European Unity and a number of consequences as a result. I was able
to analyze my documents and use them appropriately within the structure of my essay. I was able
group documents, explain the point of view of documents, state the bias of documents and
successfully cite each document in the paragraphs. I was even praised for my late work.
Although in the end I succeeded, despite my laziness and fears, I learned not to believe
everything to be easy. It’s true some things may appear easy, but the smallest of things can make
such an easy problem into a difficult situation.