Your Next Step: Get to Know You a Little Better

NOTE: These are just examples. Your writing can whatever flows from you, whether it is simple or complex, tight or loose, light or heavy, neat or a little messy. What matters is that it sounds like your natural way of speaking.

EXAMPLE 1: A PLACE
Once, when I was about 22, I took a church trip with the Newman Center to Tijuana, Mexico where we spent spring break teaching English, connecting with the land and people there. We stayed in an extremely poor (materialistically speaking) community on a dusty hill lined with small shacks of wood slabs, brick, and warped corrugated roof tops. There might have been thin trees here or there. I remember the smell of corn tortillas. (Someone once told me that American homes smelled like toast to them. Well, the homes there smelled like fresh corn tortillas.) I remember seeing the huge, sunny smiles of some of neighborhood kids, between the ages of 9 and 13, whom we taught or came to visit where we were staying. When we ate together, they would say “Mmmm, que comida mas rica!” ; I remember hearing the volunteer say with a matter-of-fact smile, “Everyone knows where I keep the key to my house.” He did not have a gated-community way of thinking. I remember thinking to myself, “Wow. His house was welcome to all in the community. They respect him and his home, so there is no real need to lock it.” Despite the poverty, these were some of the happiest and good-natured kids I have ever met; and even though I got diarrhea from tap water I accidentally swallowed while brushing my teeth, it didn’t seem to last and getting sick did not overshadow nor prevent me from learning and connecting with the kids.

EXAMPLE 2: A PERSON
One memory that stands out is when my High School geometry teacher, Mrs. Johnson once told me “David, one day you’re going to be_________. when you grow up.” It barely registered back then, and I’m not sure I felt much when she said it. But I often think about it now. At lunch time, there was often a group of kids that loved to hang out in her classroom. Thinking about it now, it is clear to me those who loved hanging out in her classroom might have felt somewhat like misfits, and Mrs. Johnson’s classroom was a place they could feel safe. (What an interesting word: Misfit. I always thought of misfits as dirty, scrawny “misfits” you’d see in the movies. Seeing the word now, I see the word broken down. Mis- and Fit. Someone who doesn’t fit in.)

Mrs. Johnson’ssmile spread to her eyes and caused her cheekbones to raise. And though she never brought up religion during Geometry class, she read the bible during the lunch so she took the time to read and reflect on her faith in the middle of her day. She said, “I used to think you shouldn’t write in the bible. Now I know it’s ok to write notes or whatever you think about what you read.”

Because she was a competent teacher and a warm and kind human, I believed Mrs. Johnson was a model grown up. You know, she was what happened when kids grew up and matured, and got all the childish, meanness, ignorance out. And she was a competent teacher, though we all have our strengths and weaknesses. In fact, the only “weakness” I could find was her particular way of saying Hypotenuse. She said, “Hypotenee.” I couldn’t figure out why she said it; it was curious and funny to me, but it drove one student, Tracey, mental. Tracey would scrunch up her face and tell any student sitting around her desk, “It’s hypotenUSE.” I thought, “It’s cute and who cares?”. We understand what it was and how to apply it for a test. Don’t ask me what a hypotenuse is now, though.

One other thing that stands out: She was the only African- American teacher I had in High School.


EXAMPLE 3: A PERSON
My cousin Gina. What was she like? How could I describe her? The first thing I remember thinking of her is this one silly memory I have of her was when we visited my Uncle Sam and his family one summer. Gina was washing the lunchtime dishes. A neighborhood kid came to the door and asked if Gina could come out and play. I went Gina who was washing the dishes and relayed the kid’s message. Gina said, “No I can’t right now. I’m washing dishes.” I relayed the message to bored girl who wanted a playmate . When she heard Gina couldn’t play, the kid just sucked her teeth and sighed in disappointment. Gina asked what the kid said, and I told Gina that she didn’t say anything, “she just went [and then I imitated the teeth suck and sigh]. Gina reacted with a, “What?! She went Tsss, Uuuh Huh! to me?!”

So after Gina finished washing dishes, she marched, arms swinging, to the kids house which was a block or so away and once there, began with “I heard you went Tsss, Uuuh Huh to me” and went on to explain something I no longer remember. All I remember is her sprinkling in a “Don’t be going Tsss, Uuuh Huh to me” from time to time. And when she was done, turning around and marching back to the house.

(The kid just listened with a combo look of bother and confusion on her face, while another skinny younger girl stood on the side with hands akimbo — maybe the girl’s younger sister — and mocked my cousin saying “blah blah blah” the entire time Gina spoke. Gina just ignored it, focusing on delivering her lecture to the one who had seriously disrespected her.)
I had never seen someone take a mole hill of teeth suck and sigh and turn it into a massive mountain of a Tsss Uuuh Huh.

What stood out was Gina’s boldness and confidence. Gina was shorter than average, maybe 5″1′ at the time, but she was tall in confidence. Gina’s School and Street Smarts were above average, too.”

Looking back, it still makes me laugh whenever I think of that moment. Her confidence. Her flair. Her sass.