Matthew Cropper Both excited and nervous I begin my senior year of high school.

The previous year I had taken AP Language and Composition as my English class and due to school policy I was destined to take AP Literature my senior year. Having received high marks on my past exams gave me a sense of confidence as I entered the school on the first day. I had never been one particularly fond of English as I always considered it just to be an easy credit taking me one step closer to college. In fact I would often question the necessity of a English class to myself. Asking why we need to take the same class every year that only forces us to read one work of Shakespeare and variety of other novels. Unfortunately, I had never thought much of English classes I viewed them as an easy grade and only one step in the many other English classes I would have to take. However, this all changed my senior year of high school. AP Literature would expand on my knowledge in writing obtained by AP Language and would foster my feelings towards writing as they are today. The first day of my final year of high school finally arrived and with eyes only half open I walked into my AP Literature class for the first time. The class was fairly standard, designed to fit around 30 students. There were two white boards, one in the front and one in the back. The desks were almost in a u-shape. A few rows of the desk on the far side of the room, a few rows in the back of the room, and a few rows that would be parallel to the first set of rows. All the desks faced to the focal point of the classroom which would be the whiteboards in the front. Little did I know that this bland looking classroom would be the place where I would develop my technique and appreciation for writing. As I had thought the first semester was nothing special for me. The class was at 7:20 in the morning and enough to put me asleep. All the desks were occupied and my teacher for this class was Ms. Flather. She was a nice teacher but more often than not we would see her angry side because no one in the class was able to properly answer the questions that were asked. Needless to say this would only make me resent the class more, and only make my mornings more strenuous. The only thing keeping me awake was my fear of being called on to answer a question and have no idea as to how to formulate an answer. When in reality most times I was unable to come up with an answer regardless of how hard I tried. I'm not sure if it's because I was tired but most occasions my mind would draw a complete blank whenever the teacher asked a question. Typically I've done well in English classes but that class was much harder than I expected it to be. Each day was routine, I would sit down and try my best not to be called on in the class. We would do a variety of assignments such as analyzing poems and writing essays, I didn't receive outstanding grades but I did well enough to get by. The class had many of my friends in it and for that reason it was enjoyable. Most days I would just remain distant and uninterested in the lessons. Only paying attention so I could maintain my grades and not fall behind in the work. Surprisingly enough my interests in English would start to change when we began reading Shakespeare's Hamlet. At first I considered it only required routine for students to read Shakespeare and the amount of effort it took to understand the words that were on the pages was always a deterrent for me. Although with the amount of depth we went into the story and the story itself I gained a great appreciation for the work.

Senior year was the first time I had ever really been interested in Hamlet and that would only serve as the beginning for the rest of my change in attitude for the class. Aside from developing my appreciation for Shakespeare the class also refined my writing style and made it into what it is today. Although I was never really interested in the lessons I still did manage to learn from them. More often than not we would talk about the components to a successful paper all leading up to the hopes of being able to pass the AP Literature exam with flying colors. We certainly practiced these concepts more than I would like as we wrote more essays than I would have liked. As expected some of my first essays were not amazing but they were decent and certainly a good starting point for my development in writing. In addition to reading Hamlet we would read a variety of Shakespeare's poems and other smaller works in the interest of analyzing them. Through this analysis we developed skills to tactfully piece apart a poem or essay in order to obtain useful information in writing an essay. Before we would write essays we would practice developing different theory statements in order to clearly and efficiently express our ideas. Organization was a topic we touched heavily upon as it taught us how to effectively organize our ideas within the limited time frame we would have to write. These different activities occupied my time until I was faced with my first real challenge of the class. We would take a scene from Hamlet and perform it in front of the class. This was the first time I would act on stage and needless to say I was nervous. Mostly because I would have to memorize Hamlet's lines in a fairly long scene. It was memorizing Shakespearian English that made this task so daunting. I was use to performing for band but never before had I acted in front of people and especially for a grade. While I was nervous for this assignment it gave me an even deeper appreciation for Shakespeare and Hamlet had officially become my favorite play from Shakespeare. I was able to act my way into a good grade for myself and my group. With the end of my scene so too did the semester end and I was able to move onto the second one with confidence, and a slightly better ability to answer questions in class. The second semester is where my writing technique grew the most. The first semester in the class had provided the ground work for what would amass to be my writing style. My class for the second semester was much smaller than the first. The class was composed of 15 people and I was happy to say I knew them all fairly well. At this point I had liked my teacher, Ms. Flather, very much and perhaps it was the fact that the class was at 1:00 in the afternoon, but the class wasn't as difficult as it was in the first semester. Perhaps all the teaching and practicing had sunken in to the point where I can distinguish important literary devices when I first read a text. I was amazed at my new found abilities to decipher a text as such; given that I still had a long way to go, but I was getting better. My desk this semester was located almost next to the teachers desk. Sitting next to me were my friends Barnabas and Jeffrey. Barnabas I've known since middle school so we were good friends. Jeffrey I had became friends with at the start of high school and since our friendship started we would compete in our studies. Typically he did better than me by a few points which irritated me, but I still held a competitive outlook with him when it came to grades. If anything this competitiveness would be one factor that would push me forward in a variety of my classes especially English. Sitting in front of me was

Samantha, she and I had become good friends in high school and we shared many of the same classes. Generally I was better at the class than she was so I would often find myself helping her to write her essays than focusing on my own assignments. Jeffrey, Barnabas, Samantha, and I would often work together in class on numerous assignments. The final semester to the year and the final stretch to finishing high school. The only obstacles that would stand in my way are the AP exams at the end of the year. During this time I was constantly dealing with a barrage of assignments meant to prepare me for the exams. I've never written so much in an English class. Practically an essay every week with plenty of other assignments to occupy our time. We also read a variety of novels in order to use them when writing for the exam. Our essays focused on perfecting our writing within the brief time frame that would be allowed when taking the exam. We would prepare our essays and consider what it is that would make the essay good. Often we practiced how to form meaning out of what authors were saying and then work on how to express that meaning through a variety of different techniques. Writing all those essays refined my writing skill as I would be presented with different questions, and have to write in an effective way in order to voice my opinion all within a 40 minute timeframe. Writing like this wasn't easy at first but it became easier the more we practiced. My average grade on these assignments also began improving to the point where I was getting A's on my papers. I was getting better and at the same time my writing was changing more and more by the day. The days quickly passed by and with each passing day more focus was placed on the impending exams. My days quickly became preoccupied while trying to deal with a mountain of assignments as well as studying for exams. I was also faced with the obligatory end of the year project. These I didn't mind though, I often found them enjoyable to work on. In my group for this project was Jeffrey, Barnabas, and Samantha. Our assignment was to make a video explaining a novel we read that year. So being the musically inclined students that we are we decided to make a parody song for the video which was well received by our teacher. The only problem was trying to coordinate with our group in order to get the project done. With exams approaching each students schedule became unpredictable and trying to film a video in the middle of exams was no easy task , but we managed. The final projects all came to an end and before I knew it, it was the day of the AP Literature exam. The exam was in a different building, next to school ground. While waiting to be let into the exam room our teacher was present giving us reassuring thoughts of success. I honestly had no idea what to expect of this exam. However, thanks to Ms. Flather I was as ready as I would ever be for it. After presenting a form of photo ID we were allowed into the exam room. A single room about the size of our schools cafeteria with rows of desks occupying the barren space. I took a quick note of where my friends were sitting. Jeffrey was right behind me, and Samantha and Barnabas were practically on the opposite side of the giant room. Needless to say I was nervous and less than excited to take this exam but I made my best attempt to make some of my friends feel better about it. Before I knew it I was in my seat taking the exam. Reading passages that didn't interest me and focusing on the essays that were at the end of the test. When I had finally gotten to the essay portion of the exam I took a deep breath to remember everything we had worked on in class. I remembered what to look for in text, I remembered various ways that would help me organize my essay, and I remembered effective ways that I can write my thesis

statement. Everything we had done in class I utilized in writing those essays. In the end I was happy the test was over, it was long and tedious and I hated sitting in that boring test room. After the test I talked with my friends about the test and at the end of the day we just hoped we did well. I'm happy to say I did succeed with the exam and it's thanks to my teacher who taught me how to write in a professional style, and gave me a greater appreciation for writing. At first I was never interested in writing. I always considered it tedious and uninteresting. However, little did I know that my senior English class would teach me the value to writing. I had begun the year thinking my writing was as good as it would ever be; I thought that English class was an excuse to regurgitate information that had been presented to you for years. I learned more than I thought in that class, and managed to refine my writing style into what it is now. Throughout the year I saw my writing change in more ways than I thought. That class taught me that there is always something more to learn when it comes to writing and reading. Our writing is always changing and improving whether we realize it or not.