My Teacher by Hayden

My Teacher by Hayden - March 2013 Scholarship Essay

When growing up, a student comes across many teachers on there pathway to graduation, some are remembered  and some are forgotten. Then there are a select few teachers that have something special something unique, a very quality that leaves an everlasting mark on a student for the rest of their life. This is the exact experience I had with my first grade teacher Mrs. Davis. Without the encouragement, love ,and overall patience Mrs. Davis had for me I would have no chance of being where I am today.
While coming of age in Atlanta, Georgia I began to develop a serious speech impediment around the age of six due to surgery I had the previous year on my Tonsils. This caused me to have serious insecurities with myself and I found it very hard to build up confidence to speak. On top of this speech problem I also struggled tremendously with reading and writing. While most of my friends were beginning to sound out words and read small books, I could not simply read and understand a single sentence. Being six years old my only goal was to avoid the reading and embarrassment by not trying and not facing my fears head on. When the beginning of the first grade rolled around Mrs.Davis introduced herself to my mother and I at orientation. I could tell from the first meeting that Mrs.Davis was not going to put up with the way I had been approaching Reading and Writing in the past. She laid out a day by day plan for the next year that involved extra work, extra time, and extra boring. I absolutely hated this teacher. I could not believe she was going to punish me for being dumb, on the side of all this I would be taking speech classes 45 minutes away from home. I still remember driving with my mom begging her to homeschool me. I never wanted to go through sitting down with that teacher ever again but she refused. Through the year of torment and extra hours of work I began to Read and Write even better than my friends. As well as this I was improving and eventually got rid of my speech problem by the end of the year because of the speech classes I was taking weekly. I was shocked that it was working then again I sure was hoping all the work would pay off , and it did.
Mrs Davis could have just let me slip by and wither through the cracks like most teachers this day and age. She could of only worked her share and allowed me to continue the way I was but she didn't. Mrs. Davis left an everlasting impact on my life to strive for excellence and to never give up. While most any other teacher would have looked at me and saw more work they had to do, Mrs. Davis looked at me and saw potential and the work she had the opportunity to do. I thank Mrs. Davis for being the influence she was on a first grader who just needed some push a push that would leave a lasting print on his life.