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Mentors and Me

My joy in writing came from a culmination of experiences from college. I saw myself improving there, and received praise for some of the essays I wrote. These ongoing events, taken together, gave me something to grasp onto in terms of my identity.

It's hard to overstate how important it is for a male to feel useful. For me, that usefulness has taken the form of my ability to express myself, to write on behalf of others, and to apprentice others with what little ability I myself have. Since college, in fact, I have become an English teacher; and it is in the realm of writing, more than any other aspect of language, that I feel most able to help my students.

While I am no great writer, I feel that others' affirmation of my ability has given me a positive sense of myself. Whether or not I should take that sense as part of who I truly am is not for me to say now. I know that what someone does has no bearing on that person's importance as an individual. I also know, however, that we all have talents, even if unrecognized, and that each person's talent is something he or she can use to benefit others.

I enjoy finding ways of affirming my students' writing, because I know how good it felt for me to be affirmed in mine.

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