My Legacy by Gavin

My Legacy by Gavin - August 2016 Scholarship Essay

Mom always told me that I was not 'ordinary', but rather, I was extraordinary. Those were words that I did not know would guide me to great things in my life. From a single, poor mother, and the eldest of 6 children, I was raised that I could achieve all things, and touch and taste the rainbow. I am so inspired that I now know as a senior in high school that I am going to teach, as I have been taught, and leave a legacy in this life, and be remembered by my students, as the most inspiring English teacher they will long remember. I want to find kids that feel ordinary and make them feel extraordinary, by helping them recognize that they are all capable of great things through education, and teachers who care.
I have always reached for the stars, and when I couldn't reach my goal she was there, Mom, to cheer and praise and lift me up. So when I took another plain-jane English course in High School and was not inspired, I would often turn to my Mom and ask for advice as to why I was not engaged. She would respond that I was to reach deeper and find the beauty in all of the lessons; which were often to write about trees or to sit in the woods amongst nature and write poetry. I could not find the will to engage and was upset with the teacher. I was not inspired and I was not growing in the course. I wanted more. I wanted to be in a creative writing class that took my mind and soul to places I hadn't been before, and write about deeper more meaningful things in life.
I saw a tree in those woods with deep engorged roots, with a kind of darkness, and I reflected on mom's words, and I saw and felt history in its crooked and frightening old branches, of the Civil Rights era and my love of History and Human Rights, and I saw the hatred in American History on those branches that day, and I turned to my mother and told her, "I cannot write about that tree because I see too much history of what man did to man, hanging from its branches." My Mother told me that this was the most profound thing she could ever imagined a seventeen year old thinking. She expressed that it was deep thinking and profoundly thoughtful, and filled with imagination. I was engaged in my reasons for being in the woods that day with that English class, after all.
I found my way in that ordinary English class and made it through the class with constant reminders at home that creativity and imagination comes from deep within me; it lies deep in the human spirit, that no matter where the teacher took us, it was up to me to reach deep. I learned from this ordinary third year English class, that I want so much more from creative writing and literature, and that because of classes that do not always inspire all at once, I want to go to college and be a great teacher, that not only reaches deep and teaches each child that they are extraordinary, as my mother taught me, but that I want to leave a legacy and be remembered by my students for my teaching. Moreover, I learned that from that seemingly uninteresting English class, great lesson sin life. I had to go far beyond what I was seeing, and find out who I am and what I want, from Ms. Messenger's Junior English class, and knew my calling in life--to teach English and inspire my student's to touch and taste the rainbow.
There is something inside of me that is as deep rooted as that big old crooked oak tree and all of its history in the woods that day. There was something magical in that dull class. I learned that I want to teach and inspire. I want to be the greatest teacher that my single Mother was all of my life. I want my students to see more than trees and stumps and ordinary. I want them to leave my class knowing they are extraordinary, deep thinking writers and thinkers. I am ready for college now, and for the journeys that lie ahead because of my Mother and her great lessons and because of the small English class that taught me I want so much more, and I will someday leave behind my legacy, and touch as many lives as I can.