Emotion and writing.

With my limited experience as a tutor I have encountered a few emotional essays, pertaining to a significant event that happened in their life and how it changed/influenced them. When I think of the word emotional, I don’t necessarily think of an exaggerated form of emotion such as anger or sorrow. Emotion is not black and white. In regards to the essays I read, emotion reflected the feelings, good or bad, that they experienced as a reaction to the event. I enjoyed reading these essays because it showed the broad spectrum of emotion or feelings that we experience. Typically when we think of an emotional essay, we imagine exaggerated forms of either happiness or sadness. For example, a student brought in an essay describing her summer in Lake Powell. Not only did she describe the happiness that she experienced from the event, but the sense of gratitude, peace and love she felt. I love gaining insight into the human experience and how people learn from experiences. These personal narrative essays provided me a window into the lives of my peers. Additionally, it provided me with insight into the painful experiences that some people deal with in their lives. A couple of weeks ago I tutored a student who had an incredibly personal essay that talked about her father’s drug abuse which led to his incarceration. She talked about how painful this experience this was, and how it influenced her as a person. Typically, one could assume that she was bitter and resentful to her father. However, she talked about how after corresponding with her newly sober father led her to understand his behavior and appreciate him. Once again, this shows how multi-dimensional human emotion is. I enjoyed reading them, and tried my best to tutor the students paper without changing the personal qualities.