3 -Yasmin G: Memory that Made me, me!

One of my most important core memories goes way back to third grade. At that age, and still to this day, I wanted to be a creative writer and author. One day, in third grade, we were asked an end-of-the-day question; “What do you want to be when you grow up?” All the kids around me said things like firefighters, police officers, or veterinarians. My dream was a lot different than the other kids and the word “author” slipped through my lips, reacting in a lot of weird looks from classmates, but more importantly, my own teacher.

My teacher offered an interesting reaction that I never thought a teacher would say. He looked up from the board after writing everyone else's dream jobs and said "no one ever makes it as an author. People like JK Rowling are so rare. You might want to change your trajectory." This hurt. This hurt so bad, but I don't know if I completely knew it at the time, so I just changed my answer to "doctor, then". My teacher smiled, and wrote that on the board.

         This was a moment in my life that changed me forever. I was so young and my brain was still developing, that I believed this was true; I could never make it as an author or a poet, it was only a dream. Then, in sixth grade, I met the teacher that gave me the best advice I could have ever needed: "take his words and use it as a vessel. One day, throw it right back in his face when your book is the first he sees in the bookstore".

         Ever since that moment, I have learned to use people's words as my own personal weapon against them. It truly changed me as a person and even at that young of an age, I was writing every single day, planning all kinds of stories, but I quit after that. I lost all interest in any type of writing and English classes and in sixth grade, I got my first F in a class. That was when my teacher sat me down to talk about why my grade was bad, and I told her my story. Soon after, she gave me the advice and I very quickly picked up writing and fell in love with it all over again.

       If this memory never happened, I would not be as determined and persistent as I am today. While I am so mad at that teacher for ruining and taking away 3 years of my writing knowledge, he taught me so much about where confidence, persistence, and the right people around you can get you in life.