This is for a school class assignment? High school?

Make something up. That's what I've told my children to do ever since the family tree project in elementary school.

Or, if you don't want to make something up...pick one of those minor memory type things. Your first day of school. First day of summer camp (love of swimming). Learning to play an instrument. First time you road a bike. A news event that shaped you. (Roberto Cemente played for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He died in a plane crash while helping victims of a disaster. My wish to help others was born that day.)

The "assignment" is probably more about learning to use emotional descriptions in a paper. Remember to try to pull in all 5 senses if you can.

"As I shuffled into the room amid the chatter (sound) of twenty student, the wall (visual) of words of the classroom overwhelmed me. The letters swirled(visual) as hey seemed to grow (visual) and grow and tower over me until I felt like I couldn't breath (touch). Ms. Scott came and put her warm (touch) arms around me and guided me to my desk. I looked (visual) down my name, and the letters all settled down and made sense. The smell of new crayons comforted me, and I knew I was going to be okay. My love of reading was born that day."



Essays are like commercials. Sell your idea/concept. It's okay to make a few things sound better than they really were, and to leave things out that don't support your thesis (concept that you're trying to sell. It's basically a statement that could be agreed or disagreed with. Such as "My first day of school shaped my love of learning.")

Look up other essays online. It's okay to beg/borrow and steal concepts/phrases. Just not okay to use full sentences. Use index cards and write down phases that you like "the colors danced", "the birds swarmed",

Try your best not to have anyone "walk" (they can dance, slump, skip, shuffle, storm, stomp, march, slide). Try not to have anyone "say" they can (yell, sniffle, squeak, declare, shout, sing, whisper, etc.)

Allow inanimate objects/concepts to "do" things to you. The blaring of the marching band "filled my soul/heart with dread/joy". The cold metal comforted my tired fingertips.

Writing is a skill, takes practice, at one time I DETESTED it. Now...it's okay. And I'm helping my kids learn.

I think Patti has given some great advise..... My roomie/landlord is a high school teacher and the reason that assignments like this are given is to keep kids interested and wanting to learn

It's never about hurting a student sweetie or wanting you to relive things that have hurt you

You could make it about anything.... Having your favouirte ice cream for the first time or seeing a movie that you loved

Big squishy hug.....xo

As much as it hurts, there are some lessons to be learned from bad mothers.
If I had to write an essay about my bad mother, I would say that my mother’s actions helped me become aware very early on of who I DONT want to be .
I would say that having a bad mother helped me become a good mother, because I am sensitive to the needs of my children and how aware I am of how my actions would influence their well being.
I d say that despite of this disadvantage, it Made me understand why people choose the wrong path in life and have more compassion towards them, instead of disdain.

Not having a mother made me push harder for the things I want in life, instead of sulking.

Not having a mother have me complete freedom to shape myself the way I chose to and I don’t have anyone to blame for my mistakes and all the credit is to me for my achievements.

I m sorry that it hurts so much. You will be ok. You will get through this.

I would encourage you to write about one of your negative experiences. There's no rule that says every assignment you write has to be about something happy, and perhaps you might learn something from one of your experiences with your mother if you have to sit and reflect on it. Maybe not having your mother around consistently taught you to be more independent or self sufficient. Maybe you learned what a mother should not do to their children. The assignment is to write about an experience that helped make you who you are today. Our negative experiences do that for us just like positive ones do.

Or patti22 gave some sound advice. All high school essays are about assessing your abilities to write. You can always write about a small experience and make it out to be a bigger experience than it was by using descriptive writing.

I will say this though. My mother left when I was a few months old. Afterwards, my grandmother babysat my brother and me while my dad worked, then she died when I was three. A year later, my dad moved us in with my aunt (650 miles away from where we lived at the time), who was verbally, and sometimes physically, abusive of my brother and (especially) me. I got a lot of writing material for school out of that bitch. Sometimes it's cathartic to write about the crap that happens in your life.

Whatever you do, you will be fine. It is just one assignment, and you will make it through this. :)