Ben Sorensen

Fleischer

ENG 1A MWF 9-10

12 February 2014

Draft 2

            My name is Benjamin Shaw Sorensen and I was born in Clovis, CA. My birthday is April 12^th, 1995 which was the day that Ben Crenshaw won The Masters; hence, Benjamin Shaw. My parents are Cindy and Steve; I have a younger sister named Audrey, as well as an older brother named Nolan. If you knew me, you’d know that my life essentially revolves around football. I’ve been playing football since the ripe age of 11 and I have always known that it would be a big part of my life. I was fortunate enough to receive a full ride scholarship to continue my dream of playing football.

My life goal is to make it to the NFL; however, I know that is a long shot for anyone. For this reason, I have a backup plan. If the NFL does not workout then I will go to Officer Candidate School or OCS for the marines. Because I will have my college degree, I can automatically go to OCS and get a shot at becoming a commissioned officer in the marines. Serving my country is something that I have always wanted to do along with playing football.

If you really knew me, you would know that I'm boot wearin’, guitar playin’ redneck, that was raised right and loves his momma. You’d also know that I never really had a liking for school, but when it came down to it, English had always been my brightest area. Science and history always drew my attention and I usually tended to be somewhat interested in them, however, I had a hard time understanding a lot of the material therefore I developed a bitter taste for these classes and will take the least amount of them possible. Now math is my weakest spot. When it comes to math, I'm like an old dog trying to learn a new trick. It just doesn’t happen. There’s a more likely opportunity that you would see my 6’5”, 255 pound self-becoming a ballerina rather than a math major.

I never really understood how any human being in their right mind could enjoy math. I would ask people this question, and one time I was answered with a question in return. “Well what’s your favorite subject?” I then replied with “I hate ‘em all but If I had to pick one it’d probably be English”, then that person told me “Well think of it this way, I like math just as you like English. You hate math just as I hate English. We all enjoy different things.” Now this conversation was very thought provoking for me. It made me think to myself that I hated absolutely everything about the educational part of school, but what was it about English that wasn’t so bad? What, or who, or when, or where, did something happen in my life to make me not hate English as much as I hated all of the other subjects?

If I could pinpoint one experience, one person, one time in my life that had the biggest influence and developed me into the literate person I am today, it would have to my English class during my sophomore year of high school. This class wasn’t taught by a teacher; it was taught by a goddess. Her name was Mrs. Smith and she was quite easy on the eyes. Because of this, I always was excited to go to her class. Her good looks gave me a reason to want to go to class and actually learn a thing or two.

I realized that she actually was a very good teacher to go along with her good looks. Mrs. Smith was a different kind of teacher. She wasn’t the type of teacher to have us take out a piece of paper and pencil, and, make us take a whole bunch of notes. She also wasn’t the type of teacher who assigned a ton of reading or homework for us to do. She simply just explained things to us in a way that we all were capable of understanding. When it came to writing, she would pretty much just let us write about whatever we want. She gave us freedom with our writing.

This type of freedom made us respect her and want to learn. In her class I challenged myself as writer and improved greatly. She taught me how to use my own voice in my writing and how to get creative with my ideas. She also shaped my reading habits. Before taking her class I had never really read a book on my own form cover to cover. However we did book logs in her class and I started to read books of my choice and realized that it’s actually kind of interesting.

Now I'm not saying that I'm William Shakespeare or, J.K Rowling, but I am saying that I would be a much, much worse writer if it weren’t for Mrs. Smith. She made me believe in myself as a writer, and she also opened my eyes to a whole new world of creativity. I have her to thank for shaping me into the writer I am today.