This story actually involved some “fun” in that I enjoyed the work and it’s a success story – too successful in fact. One of my jobs in college was working as a writing tutor. Typically, students having difficulty in their English classes were referred to fellow students like me by their professors. Most were foreign students and this particular student of mine came from the former Soviet Union.

He was in enrolled in hard science classes and was irritated by these writing requirements and the low grades that were holding him back. We hadn’t had many sessions together before I got to his problem. I was trying to get him to write more for his assignment to write about his trip to the Ural Mountains. He was just stating facts, for example, about the mountain range, who he went with, how long they spent there, maybe how high up they went etc.

I asked him, “Well, what did you think about your trip? What were you feeling while you were doing it?” And he said, “That’s doesn’t matter.” And I said, “Actually it does matter. That’s exactly what they are asking you to write about!” And then something clicked in his brain. I saw the light go on and from there, it’s like it was going to be easy for him. That was the last time I saw him – he never came back after that. Lol.

So, I worked myself out of a job extremely fast. I think I saw him less than 5 times. But I guess it worked for him! One of my friends recently told me I should be a teacher because I explained things well, which was a nice compliment. This story is probably a good example of that.