Amanda Sexton

College Composition

Keeley/Rhoney

January 23, 2023

Essay One

My journey as a writer has had many highs and lows. There have been times where I felt

behind, or bad about myself. In other rare instances, I have been incredibly proud of myself and

my writing. I used to love to write, but recently during high school, my journey as a writer has

had many difficulties. During my high school years, I struggled with expectations, difficulty

jumps between different classes, and feeling like I truly enjoyed writing. However, I have also

been encouraged by teachers and my parents.

My freshman year of high school, we didn’t do a lot of writing. When we did, the

expectations were very low. I wasn’t in a very high level English class. It was easy and I had no

struggle to write at that low level. I found that I was constantly bored in the class. Entering

sophomore year, however, expectations changed. The class that year was of a much higher

difficulty than before. We weren’t taught to write at that level. We were just expected to know

how to write that way, without instruction. I fell behind in the class. I got low grades; lower than

any grades I have ever received before. The difficulty gap was far too great. There was no class

that acted as a sweet middle spot. My only options were boredom or an excessive amount of

stress.

I have been discouraged a lot by the difficulty of English classes during my development

as a writer. The unrealistic expectations placed on us to be good writers with little to no

instruction felt unfair. I struggled to do my work, and to put in the effort to do it well because of
this. My writing developed very slowly without the instruction I needed. My needs as a

developing student were not met by the teacher. I felt like I had hit a wall and would never get

any better at writing. I was lost, and I couldn’t ask for help.

However, my writing experience hasn’t all been bad. After sophomore year, I chose to

take a lower level English class than I had been in previously. There, I had teachers who

encouraged me. They helped teach me new writing skills. My writing was finally progressing

once more. My parents also helped me tremendously during my writing journey. Whenever I

struggled writing a paper or coming up with an idea, my parents would help me think of

something. They would review it for me and help me feel more confident about the final product.

Everyone has a different writing journey they must experience throughout their life. My

own writing journey discouraged me from loving writing, whether it was because of a lack of

good teaching, or because I didn’t have classes that worked at the same pace I did. Teachers and

parents helped me push through this and continue my writing journey, although I wanted to give

up. I hope in the future, the writing journeys of high school students will be better suited to each

individual student’s level. But more importantly, I hope they receive the same support I did in

my later years.