It was the first day back from Christmas break as I sat there in my tenth grade English class hardly awake. The class was loud as friends were catching up with one another and sharing what they had received as Christmas presents. The clock struck eight o'clock as my teacher, Mrs. Bartlett, walked through the classroom door. I was anticipating on taking my ritual morning nap, but right when I was about to fall asleep, I heard Mrs. Bartlett utter the words that no high school student wants to hear, "I will be assigning a research paper today that will be due at the end of the month." I was suddenly wide awake and popped my head up as the whole class let out a collective groan of disapproval. Mrs. Bartlett informed the class that the paper was to be a minimum of ten pages in length. As a student who was apathetic toward writing, I felt as if I was not going to be able to complete the assignment. Little did I know that this assignment would change the way I viewed and approached writing. It helped me develop key strategies helped me further understand the writing process. It also showed me the reward of hard work and gave me writing experience that helped me develop a love and passion for writing.
My previous experiences with writing had been nothing compared to the ten page research paper that I was facing. I saw my previous experiences as boring and busy work. Teachers would often assign book reports on books that I had no interest in. How could I enjoy writing when I had absolutely no interest or passion for what I was writing about? Luckily, Mrs. Bartlett announced that she would not assign each person a topic, but that each student would be allowed to choose a topic to write about themselves. Finally, I was given the opportunity to write about something I was passionate about. I was a huge sports fan, so I thought to myself, what better thing to write about than sports? The next day, I presented my topic to Mrs.