What started it all

One of my favorite teachers of all time was my twelfth grade English teacher, Ms. Cisek. It was her first time teaching at Commack High School and I was, and still am, glad that I was one of the first to have had her as a teacher, there. So why was she my one of my favorites?

There was something about her still being new to the school that made me curious to know more about her personality, her past. I had a pleasure of fulfilling this curiosity once when we walked out of the school together. Fortuitous, you know, how we bumped into each other after a hard day at school. She asked about which college I wanted to attend and as it turned out, she went to Stony Brook – the college I was planning to go to. I told her about how I had many cousins and siblings that attended Stony Brook. I don’t remember much about that innocuous incident but knowing that we share a bit of history (history for her, future for me, but we were both locked in the present) somewhat satisfied the curious cat inside of me.

There was another moment we shared, except this time, she got to look inside of me, a little bit. She had asked why I did not want to do 12IB English instead of 12R (regular) English because I was excelling well above others in my class, not to brag or anything (I am humbled by most other brilliant students in my English classes today, in college). What I told her ran around the lines of “I feel stable in Regular English.” I used the word stable. That was my honest answer. Unfortunately, I don’t remember how she reacted. I can only hope that she understood what I meant without any negative judgments of me.

So, still, why is she one of my favorite teachers? A teacher is supposed to help a student grow in certain academic aspects. Inspire, in a way. That is exactly what Ms. Cisek did to me. She wrote a plethora of encouraging comments on assignments I’ve handed in. I imagine that to be one of her favorite aspects of being a teacher; it certainly would be one of my favorite aspects when I become one. I like writing comments about other people’s works that I delve myself into – works that interest me, or occasionally, works that are forced upon me. I write at least one comment on youtube videos of people doing covers of songs, each day unconsciously, I think. The feeling of connecting with another person through writing stimulates my thinking and gives intrigue a place in my mind. Ms. Cisek’s comments on a portfolio of mine encouraged me to continue writing. And the high hope she placed on me through what she wrote in my yearbook makes me want to not fail her and in the process succeed in any goals I set for myself.

You might think that, given the high status I put on Ms. Cisek, that we had an open relationship. In high school, I was always the shy one. In fact I never worked up the courage to tell another teacher (he so happens to be another English teacher, Mr. Murphy) that he was also one of my favorite teachers, until he retired the next year and only came to visit. He told me, with teary eyes that I had made his day after my confession. No, problem, Mr. Murphy and no, thank you! So, I would say that my shyness only brought Ms. Cisek and me even more close, however implicitly. Either that or it was all in my head.

Thank you Ms. Cisek!

Also, from Ms. Cisek, I learned the power of freewriting, also known as stream of conscience. Freewriting is really fun. What you do is, you set yourself a time limit, in which you would write continuously. Write anything that comes in your mind or anything about a certain topic that is given to you. Say you had to write about your reflection to everything you did in the previous week. And you were given five minutes to write. Then, for five minutes, you just write about that, non-stop. Even when you run out of ideas, you should write that. The whole goal of freewriting is to give you a little informal brainstorming boost. Afterwards, you would look back at what you wrote and pick out information that you might use for formal writing. If you do not plan on writing anything formal, then freewriting is a way to relieve stress and keep your mind sharp. Freewriting is just meandering thoughts.