To my friends, family, fellow class mates and everyone else

I was born in the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle Washington, two months premature and, weighed in at a whopping three pounds 14 ounces. My father used to say that he could fit me in the palm of his hand, which I now know is a slight exaggeration of the truth. Due to inadequate lung capacity I was in the hospital for a month after I was born, my mother and father I’m sure were thrilled to have to sit and watch as I struggled to breath. As for who I am now, I am a student at Everett Community College finishing up my first year, a subway employee, and a member of G.R.I.T. (Getchell Recruits in Training). I am diligently pursuing a career in the Fire Service which caught my eye at a young age. My grandmother used to take me down to the fire station in Lake Stevens so I could sit in the driver’s seat of the engine, I can remember those days like it was yesterday. As of now I have completed EMT training and have been through Evcc’s Recruit Academy in which I obtained my Firefighter 1 Certification. The Decision to continue my education was not an easy task, but I’m glad I did for my futures sake. Now I am halfway finished with my Associates in Fire Science and on my way to my dream, becoming a fireman.

As I have traveled through the English 98 world of comma splices, summaries, paraphrasing and writing assignments I have learned that writing is more than what most perceive it to be. Coming into this class I despised writing and was dreading the fact that I had to write more after I had just graduated high school. Throughout the course of this class I have realized that good writing comes from personal experiences, knowledge, desire and sometimes just dumb luck. I couldn’t write about anything to save my life at the beginning, now I have a better understanding of the writing process and what a well constructed piece of writing should look like. The two novels we read: Three Cups of Tea and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian helped me understand the impact that someone or something can have on another. In that same sense my writing became stronger by forcing me to think at a different level than what I was used to and all of sudden I was thinking and writing of things that I never thought I could. As an example of that, my first selected piece of writing the definition of ”Change” shows that different level of thinking and how that definition shaped who I am today. After which my remaining selected pieces are introduced and available to read.