A Lasting Impression by Tyler

A Lasting Impression by Tyler - July 2016 Scholarship Essay

One of the most important lessons I learned from a teacher was from my Creative Writing teacher. He was talking to my class and I about his time in college, since quite a few of us were seniors, when he decided to tell us something that I have taken to heart, “You should never let others tell you who you should be.” His point was that in college, it will be very easy to just let others define our destiny for us and there will be others who will try to tell us what to do, what to think, and what to be, and that we should try our best to ignore these people. To help make his point, he told us about a relatively famous author who wrote with extremely verbose detail and in a very pretentious manner. He told us how his good friend was an aspiring writer who looked up to the famous author, and how he tried very hard to get a meeting with him so he could learn from this author. My teacher told us how his friend would continuously send this author stories and writing pieces, in an attempt to impress him. Eventually, after sending in a piece of his own, the author sent a letter back telling him that it could work, as well as where they could meet. After they met, the author told my teacher's friend that he would have to follow his instructions on writing, or they wouldn't be able to meet again. Since the writer looked up to him as another fellow writer, he never wanted to squander this opportunity to work with the author and agreed. He began to write just like the author and threw out all of his old writing practices. My teacher's friend's career, we were told, was destroyed after that. After trying so hard to emulate his idol and being told exactly how he should write, people stopped liking his books and stories, with the exception of a tiny niche of people who enjoyed that style of writing.

The point my teacher was trying to make was that we shouldn't listen to people who try to tell us exactly what to do and how to do it, even if we look up to them. Rather, we should think about what they say and do and attempt to apply that to our own style of living, as a method that works for one person may not work for another. So, as I'm about to head off to college this fall, I plan on taking the lesson to heart and learning to improve on what I already know but not change who I am.