Over the years I’ve changed desks and homes since then, but I have always taken that essay with me. By the time I made my final edit, I was so happy with what I had done that I kept it tucked away in a corner of my desk. I must have heard a hundred times during those hot summer days that there were no good writers, only good re-writers. More than two decades later, I still remember how every time I thought he was finished, he came up with one more thing I could change to make my piece just a little bit better. He wanted to know what I thought, and stressed that he wanted me to write my best essay ever about both texts. That summer, we read Sharon Bell Mathis’ Teacup Full of Roses and Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun. That was until a Higher Achievement Center Director, Benjamin Wides, took on the challenge of encouraging me to come out of my shell. Twenty-three years ago, my shy pre-teen self was doing everything possible to stay far out of the spotlight.
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