Nonfiction Writing - Ryan W.

Definitely not enough.  Although I’m quite social around my friends, I always find it pretty hard to talk in class or put my voice out there. Oftentimes, I feel an intangible barrier between myself and the teacher, preventing me from communicating my point. On other occasions, I second guess my thoughts and think about the possible consequences of saying something disrespectful or commenting with my ideas before they are fully fleshed out. Especially nowadays, I feel the conflict of wanting to participate in class discussions but also experiencing that intangible feeling seemingly preventing me from talking.  I’m also horrible when it comes to trying new activities. I’ve been to amusement parks many times, yet I’ve only been on a roller coaster once in my life, despite there being no real barrier between me and trying the rides. I’ve definitely heard about the amazing fun that people have had on roller coasters, and the weird thing is, I’m not even scared of them. I just find ...

On a day-to-day basis, I normally don’t curse. At least, I don’t do it explicitly. Out of habit, I usually resort to “frick” or “darn it” as euphemisms for what I really mean. In Champaign, there are a few middle schools that people know about: Franklin, Jefferson, Edison, and Next Generation. Then there’s Countryside, the tiny K-8 school that I went to. Being a private school, there were some weird rules (though I’m sure there were interesting school rules elsewhere as well), such as only being able to go to the bathroom if there were less than two people in your grade in the bathroom. The most influential rule, however, was probably the “no swearing” rule that the administrators implemented in 7th grade.  I remember vividly one day when an administrator came into Core 1 English and took half of our class away to the music room, where they had a talk about behavior. In PE, all the students began discussing the rules that had been outlined in the harsh talk, namely the “ban” on swe...