I have only good expereinces tutoring so far. All of the students I’ve worked with have been very nice and gracious, and I’ve enjoyed being able to help them. I’ve realized that what I’ve been worried about isn’t actually the tutoring aspect of tuturing at all— it is tutoring someone like me, the way I was when I was a freshman four years ago. It is a nightmarish fantasy where a cocky, thinks-he’s-smarter-than-he-is little teenage snot swaggers in the room, plops down his “masterpiece”, and declares “I would like some help with this paper,”— says it in a tone that contradicts the spirit of any ordinary use of the word “help”. And then there’s him sitting there for twenty-odd minutes, with that look on his face as if challenging the the authority of any critical word spoken. Someone who eagerly watches for any mistake, just so he can tell himself, “Yea.... I knew this guy was a phony”. Yep. That was me I’m sad to say (me four years ago don’t forget). Well, I wasn’t really as bad as all that. I think my initial apprehension of tutoring came from generalizing this worst-possible-case scenerio. But from the first moment I started with my first student, I realized that it wouldn’t be anything like what I had imagined in my darker moments. It’s been a great expereince so far.

As for the proficient writing question, I’d say that my writing ability comes from reading a lot. I also got in the habit fairly early on (9th grade I think) of writing my thoughts down. I’ve always had trouble being eloquent in speech, but when I wrote I found that my words and thoughts flow much better. Oddly enough, I think this has given me valuable insight into the exact oppisite and much more common problem— that is, being able to speak clearly enough, but becoming mute when in front of a keyboard and computer screen. Understanding this kind of frustation helps me empathize with the difficulties that others have when trying to express themselves in writing.