Journal: English

Growing up, the school subject of English was most definitely not my strong suit.  There were a few people and some past experiences that helped me to become who I am in English today. One person in particular was my high school English teacher.  Not only did I have her in 11th grade but also as a senior in high school.  But before I begin, let me give you a little background story.  My dad had been a teacher at the high school I was going to attend for 20 years, therefor I knew all the INS and OUTs.  I knew most all the teachers and who you want to have and who you don’t.  I knew all the upper classmen and was ready to take on the next 4 years as long as I didn’t get the one particular teacher, Mrs. Waers.  She was that teacher that either liked you or did not and your grade reflected it.  Unfortunately for me I knew she was not a total fan of my father.  Mrs. Waers was a hard core Democrat and everyone knew it, Obama and her cats were her life and of course my dad had to be the one to make a joke one time that put him on her bad side.

The first two years of my high school experience went great, my English teachers didn’t really push me and that was the only subject I was ever worried about and they ended up being a piece of cake.  But then junior year came along and Mrs. Waers name popped up on my schedule.  I was traumatized and scared out of my mind, I honestly was prepared to fail!

            I remember the first few days hating her guts, she was so rude, snarky and entirely too picky, I truly didn’t think I was going to make it.  I didn’t understand how it was possible for a teacher to be so rude until our first assignment.  I went home and was really struggling and had no clue where to start.  I hadn’t been challenged like this ever before and I was stuck.  I knew I was going to have to ask her if we could meet and oh I was scared.  After a day of building up the courage I finally went and asked if I could stay after and she said, “YES!!”   I couldn’t believe it she actually said, “Absolutely I will stay here as long as you need!”  From that point Mrs. Waers and I were super close.

Mrs. Waers ended up being one of the very best teachers I’ve had to this point in my life.  Mrs. Waers was many things, but one of those things did not include being a fool. She took everything extremely serious, including failing grades. If she found out someone was failing she would take it upon herself to do everything in her power to help that person succeed. Personally, she spent countless hours after school helping me memorize grammar topics and going through examples, and helping me become a better writer all on her own time. She was so dedicated!  About halfway through the first semester I realized how much work she was putting into helping an ungrateful kid like myself; I decided right then that I was going to try harder and make her proud of me.  The effort paid off.  I put in a ton of hard work and Mrs. Waers continued to help teach and guide me to love reading and writing a little bit more.

            Reading and writing are both very important things and are a big part of our everyday lives. If it wasn’t for my not so very nice high school English teacher, who really all she wanted was to help, I think I would have maybe given up, and stopped trying to better my writing skills.