Author: rachelmateo

The pandemic and how it’s affected my education would be a good event to write about because my perspective changed tremendously. The person I was at the beginning of the pandemic is completely different from the person I am today. A lot of things happened throughout the pandemic in my personal life. I tried my best to not let it affect my schoolwork, but of course it did. And there are most definitely readers that will be able to relate.

My mom having my baby brother would be a second event to write about. Her having him had a major effect on me. I was 12 years old learning so much from a newborn. I never like kids. Ever since I was a little kid, I never liked other kids. They annoyed the shit out of me. Even if they were my age, they were always so childish. I never thought I’d want another younger sibling. But once he was born, I didn’t want to leave his side. I learned more about myself, babies, and my values.

The last idea I have to write about is the relationship between teachers and students and the toll it has on a student. Teachers play a huge role in students’ education and not all of them use that to their full advantage. Students could be struggling and trying their best, even if it looks like they aren’t trying at all. And most teachers expect us to be like robots and only worry about school because “there’s nothing else a kid has to think about”. Then there’s miserable teachers that take it out on the student’s, making it worse for students. Teachers that’re unwillingly to work with the student rather than just the student working for them, are discouraging kids to learn. The educational system we live in isn’t prioritizing what we need to learn, only what they want us to know.

One of the most significant “ingredients” of an educational narrative is having at least one story to tell. Regardless of how in depth you get into the flashback, you should have at least one experience to share in an educational narrative. It helps to have something to reference to and support the purpose of your narrative. Somewhere to start with my personal narrative would be to think back to those little moments and big decisions that had the greatest impact on me and my life. My biggest concern with writing an educational narrative is that I won’t be able to “educate” or really help anyone. In writing you must be vulnerable and open for the reader to be able to fully understand. I can only do that when I know I’ll be the only person reading it. One experience I feel like I can share and be completely open about is my baby brother being born. Even though it seems like something that shouldn’t concern me, it did. I was always protective over my mother, so during her pregnancy I was always worried about her. The closer to giving birth she was, the more worried I got. My mother had been hit by a van less than a year ago. It was a miracle that she lived. Having a baby not even a year after that, I was worried what would happen to her. I was only 12 years old, and I felt everything changing. I felt rushed to grow up. I tell my mom this a lot, I feel like I was robbed part of my childhood. I was the only one helping her, mind you I had 3 other siblings. Two of which older than me, so they could have easily helped more. I wasn’t the one who had the baby, yet somehow it helped me grow into the person I am today.

When Bunn writes “You’re already an author”, he’s trying to somewhat comfort the reader. Not everyone considers themself to be a writer, let alone author. It makes the reader more open to listening and learning what he has to say. We write texts and emails already on a daily basis. We know how to format words into sentences, and sentences into paragraphs, like what Bunn said. We can use our knowledge to relate to how we can read like writers.

I noticed that Bunn created a setting in the beginning of the essay. He put a lot of detail into the setting, getting the reader’s attention. I feel like it was effective being that I was more interested in continuing the read because of the first couple of paragraphs. The only disadvantage I noticed is that it’s a little disappointing when you continue reading. The first couple of paragraphs are almost like if a story is about to be told. And the essay isn’t a fictional story. But I’d take the risk and use that technique because I feel like it was mostly effective, and I personally like it.