A Thank You to Ms. Serensky

Throughout these past two years, I have questioned the reason for Ms. Serensky's "cruel" but genius mindset. Fortunately, during one of my favorite days in AP English 12, Ms. Serensky explained the cause of her intelligence and teaching techniques. As we sat together in our tightly packed circle, Ms. Seresnky eloborated on her own experiences of lEnglish class and a similar struggle to become a creative and insightful writer. I felt as though our class could finally relate to Ms. Serensky on a higher level as she continued to create parallels between our escalating learning. Ms. Seresnky elaborated on her valedictorian status in high school and how this given confidence became destroyed in her first college classes. Similar to our own downfalls in AP English, Ms. Serensky faced defeat in "one of [her] scariest moments" (50). She described an identical horror to my first paper in AP English and the realization that much knowledge needed to be learned to succeed in a higher level of English. Ms. Serensky expressed a similar mindset as myself as I recognized that "then I saw no harm" (4.2.4). She explained her acceptance of struggle and the recognition that from this struggle can only come growth and development to become a better writer. Her own experiences of trial and error allowed me to feel proud of remaining in advanced classes and made me appreciate the opportunity of having such an amazing teacher to prepare me for my college classes. All of the members of AP English would agree that "you can't go anywhere without meeting clever people" (16). However, from hearing about Ms. Serensky's path to success, I feel as though I must use these clever people (Ms. Serensky} to my advantage and learn as much as possible to become the best writer and student possible.