There can only be a beginning to an end, but this is merely the last stage.

How far can

one truly dig deep into their memories to uncover what was lost? Well if I can’t remember the
last time I wrote an essay freshmen year of high school, at least google drive can. Progress is
something we as humans are so blessed to have. It is how we measure (without any form of
actual measurement) how far we’ve grown in skill. It was a good run at the end of it all. With my
writing skills developed, I am not only able to take those skills into the real world/college, but I
am also able to have my voice be heard. I am not the best at writing and I am not the worst. I
am one of many voices of the world and here is how I was able to obtain mine from freshmen
year to senior year of high school.

To begin, one of the many things I did not do well at the beginning of my high school
journey was analyzing the important pieces of evidence. In the ​Abraham Essay​ in the first body
paragraph, I gave a piece of evidence that involved backing up the claim that all Abraham
Lincoln cared about was preserving the union in his presidential term. I provided the correct
evidence that he said, “if I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it.” But my
mistake was that I simply rephrased what the quote was saying. But one can see an
improvement a year later (sophomore year) in the​​Feminism Essay​ where although I was not
quite there yet where I analyzed pieces of evidence greatly, I definitely made an improvement in
terms of making the piece of evidence strong enough to back up not only a statement but a
theme. In the ​Feminism Essay,​ one of the pieces of evidence I provided was how women have
to feel the pressures of men constantly as they grow. Ranging from their fathers to their brothers
and husbands. But what I did differently with the evidence was not restate it, but I engraved it
into my sentences: “How she is ‘subjected to a man in every state’ ”. This is still not my best skill
of providing/analyzing evidence but one can see the growth in my argument writing where my
claims were backed up stronger than they were the previous year (freshmen year).

Next, let’s look at my creative writing. This type of writing varies greater than any other
type of writing due to the fact that my mind is able to expand on themes. I write with a passion
for this type of writing because it is based on ideas I have formed throughout my educational
and real-world experiences. The question is, how clear was I able to get my ideas out? Well,
let’s begin with the first reflective essay written. It was an about essay and it was the ​First High
School Essay​ ​I’ve written. It was based on my thought process for starting a new part of my
life: “I am 14 years old. I am ready to kick butt and take life head on”. This is the only time I’ve
ever mentioned anything as positive as this. I’m not saying my creative/reflective essays grow
negative, but they do in fact grow more realistic as well as more serious than a cheesy essay
about a kid with high hopes. One of the best creative/reflective essays from my high school
journey would have to be the ​Perspectives Essay: Beloved​ due to the fact that the essay was
based on a topic of my choice from a book significantly annotated. The topic was about love and
hatred where I also did some research on the two emotions and what it is like to have it in family
and different forms of relationships. The ideas were derived from a book my AP Literature class
studied​ and not our hopes and dreams. This is significant because my ideas were not only
explained in more detail, but they have filled me a stronger voice. Being careful with every
single hook and sentence. Especially in the introduction where I state that “love is an intense
feeling’ and not just a normal feeling, but it is something that is too complex to try and explain.

Another type of writing similar to that of creative writing would be my reflection essays. I
improved in these in terms of being able to analyze a simple topic and input my own thoughts as
clear as a blue day. For example, in the ​Social Media Essay​ I wrote for a scholarship that was
based on the use of social media, there was no evidence required but the evidence I engraved
into the essay was all from what I’ve learned from being to a meeting with business
professionals/entrepreneurs as well as attending web events involving how to grow money. In
the essay, I was able to more than prove that social media is a great if not amazing way to
advertise. An example of my growth in reflecting would be the difference between the ​Music
Essay I​ wrote a year prior to the social media essay. In this reflective essay, I may have
provided all the evidence needed, but the simple thing I did not do was reflect. I may have found
that music is an “effective tool in managing emotions” but I did not give insight into if this may be
the case for myself. Yet, for the social media essay all the quote and quote, “evidence” stems
from my thought process. Thus with these two different essays, I was able to grow in terms of
being able to write different formats of essays that vary from argument to creative/reflective.
Learning that breaking down evidence is more important than the evidence itself and that when
it comes down to giving my opinion, there is no right or wrong answer. So what about literary
analytical writings?

To continue, another favorite type of essay for me to write are analytical essays because
in these essays I am able to reflect not necessarily free, but on a topic studied(similar to creative
essays). How I improved in terms of staying coherent varies from freshmen year literary essays
to a senior literary essay. It varies at the fact that although my logic for each essay written was
understandable, it was not constant. Consequently, my train of thought was not smooth. An
example of this would be in the ​America vs Spanish Essay​ ​wherein the first body paragraph I
was talking about how because of America being too prideful, the “Yellow Press” was born. A
group of reporters which told lies about Spain all out of being patriotic. But in the following
paragraph, this very well written thought process shifts abruptly to the events of the war instead
of the logic of the war. Thankfully a year later I improved (sophomore year) in the ​Midsummer
Night’ Essay​ wherein the first body paragraph I spoke about illusions and the different
examples of them in daily life; how even “a beautiful model is an illusion” in which beauty ages
and eventually fades. Although this paragraph may consist of little to no evidence to back this
claim up, I rebounded in the second paragraph where I connected illusions as a main theme to
the Shakespeare play in which the protagonist’ (Helena) illusion was that of the lover
(Demetrius) being her prince charming. Improvement can also be seen in my literary works in
senior year writings wherein the first ​12th Grade Essay ​my logic is most challenged when I not
only have to consider the works of one author but that of three. This was not the easiest thing to
do, but because of this essay, I made improvements in my organization as well as in my
coherence. In this essay, the way its organization was formed was that unlike of any other
where the first body paragraph was like a second introduction into the theme of an apocalypse
and the rest flowed smoothly because it was organized by each author’s thoughts on an
apocalypse. Due to this organization, the logic in which I analyze how each author thought of
the end of the world as either a good thing or bad thing made much more sense to the reader.
Being able to depict how Silko in Ceremony believes an end is a sign to new beginnings and
how this point of view is different than that of Fosters where he believes the end means nothing
the end of. It is not good or bad. Henceforth, the more challenging an essay was, the better my
writing came out to be.

Lastly, one of the types of essays that I have improved upon ever since freshmen year
up to the senior year of high school would be research essays. Essays in which my thoughts
and mind to be guided by the evidence and facts gathered. As mentioned earlier, the best
essays I wrote were that of creative and reflective thus the research essays are the hardest
types of essays for me to write but they are where I excel in the most due to the fact I as well as
the reader can see that my voice has shifted throughout my high school journey. In the
Henrietta Lacks Research Essay ​one of the things I did well was I analyzed the evidence
where for example I mentioned that the night doctors were spoken about as if a myth whom
“would snatch children off their porch steps”. Analyzing the fact that the advancements of
medicine during the 20th century were harsh. Yet the mistake I did in the research essay was I
did not voice my opinions even if they were subtle. I did not say how because of the night
doctors morals were broken and black neighborhoods were left in fear. I made an improvement
in my voice towards my senior year wherein the ​Perspectives Essay o ​ f beloved, I mentioned
how in terms Sethe and Henry (her husband) had was that of numbness where they “only ever
saw each other in daylight”. Following this, I gave my opinion (subtly) where if the characters
(and anyone else in quote and quote, ‘love’) were truly in adoration for another, they’d
appreciate every moment with each other not only in daylight but in darkness too. My voice I’ll
admit was quite when I began writing research essays but as I grew more comfortable with
writing these types of essays, my voice only grew louder.

In conclusion, my writing was not always the best. I struggled to do simple things such
as analyze and break down pieces of evidence, organize paragraphs coherently, and much
more. But everyone can’t be a master without starting at the beginning. I have yet much to learn
and I appreciate every chance I get to write an essay because with each essay come a chance
to improve upon whether it may be as something as simple as diction or something as giving my
own thought and opinion too. I’m not the best writer, but I can say that I am the harshest critic to
myself and because of this, I allow myself to prosper in my voice not only when it comes down
to writing, but when it comes down to stating something I believe in or don’t.