Writer's Block: And the Apple Goes To
My eleventh grade year, I got the bright idea to join the newspaper. Turned out there was never anything exciting going on in our school to write about. If there was anything cool, the seniors who were the editors and who got the final say in everything were betches. Oh, and I also hated facts. The only cool thing about joining the newspaper was Mr. Lawson. (And I might have had a tiny tiny crush on the dude too, but that is entirely beside the point.)
My senior year I really wanted to take an independent study in creative writing. (My school sucked and didn't offer that as a class.) But Mr. Lawson was a new teacher and his advisor didn't recommend him trying to take on an independent study so he wasn't able to do it. (Neither were any other teachers.) My little writing heart was pretty much broken. So I enrolled in his Composition class because it was the closet thing they had. There were only four of us in there, and I was the only one that really gave a crap about the class. I think that's why Mr. Lawson put so much attention on my work. He would mark up my paper like crazy telling me, "You can elaborate here" or "What else could you say about this?" And when I wanted to be snarky I would diss Bob Dylan (Mr. Lawson was a huge fan, and I like Dylan but never let him know that) there would be marks like "WHY WOULD YOU SAY SUCH A THING?!"
Just about everytime I would turn in my assignments, he'd take one look at it, hand it back and say, "I know you can write more." On days when I really wanted to slack off and have a free day I would get so irritated with him because of that. But now, I'm thankful he did it. When I graduated, he even sent me a card with some cash in it and wished me good luck when I went to Cosmetology school but to never quit writing.
Due to a huge school cutbacks, Mr. Lawson quit teaching a year after I graduated. I have no clue what school he went to next. Or where he's at now. But one day if I ever get published, you better believe that man will be in my acknowledgements.