From Terrified to Mystified

From Terrified to Mystified

This was my first semester at TCC. I did not know what to expect at all, and I was terrified because I hadn’t been in a classroom in almost two years. I was surprised enough that I even tested into English 111 and I was expecting to struggle the whole way through. Somehow though, I got very lucky and ended up with a great teacher, and I found myself actually enjoying writing paper after paper. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t nearly as awful as I expected. Professor Gasparo said from the beginning that he was going to make this an “introduction to college” type course and I can’t thank him enough for that.

I feel like Professor Gasparo not only helped me appreciate writing more, but he also helped me transition from high school learning to college learning. He definitely didn’t hold our hands or baby us, and he definitely didn’t care about excuses. Homework was due when it was due, no matter what sob story there was behind why it was completed. He showed how different college is and without being a jerk, showed us that college professors could care less about excuses and exceptions. In college you are responsible for yourself and Professor Gasparo definitely made me feel like I can be responsible for myself, and somehow, I can make it through college.

Now for the hard part. I have never written so much in my entire life. If you put together all the papers I have ever written in my high school career, I still don’t think they would add up to how much I wrote in this one class, in terms of length and the amount of time I put into writing. Not that I was ever good in English anyway. I am a science and math person so English has always been my weakest subject. That is why I dreaded taking this class so much in the first place. I expected to hate every class, and struggle with every paper. But I found myself actually enjoying going to class, and even enjoying the ridiculous amount of writing I had to do.

The diagnostic essay was the first paper I wrote. I was shocked at how easy writing about what super power I wanted was. It was effortless. I wasn’t worried about sounding like an idiot, because the whole thing was based on fiction anyway. Thank god for spell check, or I surely would have failed, and I know Professor Gasparo would have wondered how I even tested into English 111 and not remedial English. After that, none of the papers was very difficult. Until I got to the argument essay of course. I thought for sure I would never finish that stupid paper. And if I did finish it by some miracle, I would fail anyway and then have to go through the whole class again. But, I did finish it. And I didn’t even fail. I got a 93! How is that even possible?

This class has been full of pleasant surprises. Almost all of the assignments sounded daunting at first (particularly blogging with my limited computer knowledge.) But none of them killed me, and I didn’t even fail any of them either. I made it through this terrifying class, and I am a better writer for it, that I can be certain of. Not only because we were taught how to write well, but somehow I came to enjoy writing. I think the main reason for that is because of the sheer amount of writing that had to be done.

A lot of people complained about how we had so many assignments all thrown at us at once, but I think that writing at least a little but every day, forced me to like writing as it was part of my routine. It all became very easy, and for that I will always thank Professor Gasparo, because somehow he did the impossible and turned my hatred of writing into a new found way to express myself. But, I am mystified that in 16 weeks this class made 12 years of fearing English class seem very…well stupid.