For years, I've told my students, you never really know which direction you'll find yourself taking, and you'll never really know when you start walking towards it. In my case, it was when I began taking courses in the Writing Seminars department during my time as an undergraduate at Johns Hopkins University.

Through fiction, poetry, playwriting, and personal essays, I started to recognize who I was; I had stories to tell, and a real love for the precision required to tell them well. At times, when college felt so hard, I still had my writing to bring me joy and confidence. It made perfect sense to me to pursue a Masters degree in English at Temple University in Philadelphia.

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Thrown into the terrifying world of teaching undergraduate composition at the age of 22, I was rather immediately struck by how few of my students knew that an essay could have more than five paragraphs, or that you needed strong, cited evidence to prove an argument, or that "In my opinion" wasn't really much of a defensible argument in the first place. The writing I loved was the writing they struggled with, and I knew that my future lay in education. Next step? Become an English teacher.

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Since 2010, I have taught young people, from 9th grade through college sophomores, about reading carefully and analytically, and crafting a throughtful thesis or central point in straightforard language. I always emphasized that it's better to have simple writing with strong "unpacking" than flowery language without substance. I've learned so much just by being in the classroom and getting to know each student personally - what are their interests? what are they amazing at? where do they struggle? what would give them a huge boost in confidence? Because often, it really does come down to being able to tell yourself, "this is good, and I'm proud of it."

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And that personal writing which brought me so much happiness in the past? It flowed beautifully into a side career working with a college counselor as an "essay expert". Over the years, my students have taught me so much about their interests that I now know the basics of ballet, fly fishing, the role of a coxswain, and what it takes to run a successful cookie business. In other words, the college essay-writing process, which I've had the time to work down to a science, has given me a tremendous education. So many students who insisted they weren't interesting didn't realize that grilling steaks with dad, or rearranging their furniture, or even wearing a gorilla costume on weekends was a whole lens into the person that they really are.

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Language is a gift, and it is also the best game in existence. For many students, it's just a matter of learning the rules, and developing a playstyle that suits them. And I am proud to share my expertise, because it has not only filled my heart, but also the hearts of hundreds of students I've had the privilege to teach.

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