My Teachers Used My English Paper as a Coloring Sheet by Erika

My Teachers Used My English Paper as a Coloring Sheet by Erika - August 2014 Scholarship Essay

When I first read this essay topic, the first thought I had was "I do not fail at school", I always received good grades and even when I struggled it was only a little. I could not think of any failure, let alone how I came out stronger. Then I realized, writing papers was my biggest failure. There was not a single time I failed at writing, but there was a time when my failure finally made me stronger.

I loved writing papers in school, well at least the interesting papers I enjoyed. Every paper I wrote always ended getting marked up, no matter how hard I tried. I would write a paper and have another teacher look at it and correct it. Then I would make the changes and turn the paper in. Somehow my paper's never ended up perfect, or "a pleasure to read". I really did try on my papers and my papers always sounded good to me, but there were always countless errors. I had failed at writing, no matter how hard I tried.

My freshman year of college I had to take "English Composition" and I was not looking forward to it. I chose a professor that fit in my schedule and hoped for the best. Shortly after, I found out my professor was strict, picky, and he hardly ever gave outs "A's". I was terrified because I needed this class, but my GPA was also very important to me and I did not want to get a bad grade. I did not want to fail at writing. I worked very hard on my papers, and when I did not understand something I asked for clarification. I made a tremendous effort to set my writing past aside and start fresh. My professor offered to meet with his students in class one on one to discuss our papers, and I went to every single class.

The first day I brought my professor my paper to be edited, I lost all motivation. He changed my sentences, my punctuation marks, and my words. I tried so hard and it appeared I had written the entire paper wrong. I failed again; except this time I succeeded also. The first day I was intimidated and embarrassed. Shortly after I decided to ask for clarification and for the first time I wanted to learn and understand what I was doing wrong. After a rigorous semester with a lot of editing and frustration, I ended up with the only "A" paper. On the top of my paper my professor wrote, "A pleasure to read and a model paper". My failure made me stronger and more confident.

To this day I am not the strongest writer, I still have my papers edited, and I am still insecure about my writing; but I know I am not a failure and I know I am capable of a satisfactory pleasurable paper. I failed countless times, but I have succeeded in learning and I am now a stronger writer and a stronger person.