I remember the This I No Longer Believe Essay being truly challenging for me to start. I wasn’t sure what to write about when given such a broad topic. This could have been about any belief in my life thus far so this prompt pushed me to look deeper and truly think. I also learned how to begin an essay and I don’t mean how to write an introduction. When doing such big writing tasks, like writing essays, I feel that I have so much to say that I don’t even know where to start. 

           The process for this essay came to be a lot easier when given the opportunity to have multiple drafts, along with feedback. It’s in this essay that I picked up a tip in order to help me write future essays, which is to simply start typing and don’t stop, even if I do not like where it’s going. By doing this I am able to at least have something down to work with. If I don’t like what I have started with. I can simply make edits and work with it along the way. 

             When it comes to the actual essay itself, I had to sit and think about my past which is where my values have most likely changed. I remember the most uncomfortable time of my life, middle school. It was a time of change, physically, mentally, and environmentally. When I look back at this period of my life I am now much more aware of the true meaning of events that have happened to me. In this essay, I was able to reflect on my naivety as I mention in the essay I believed I had friends, but in the future, I realize that it was never really true. When my so-called best friend tells me she claimed to others that she wasn’t my friend, I believed it was for good reason. I go on to explain “ after another look with a fresh set of eyes, is clear the only reason she did so was to fit in.” This essay not only taught me how to get my words out but also taught me a little about my past by allowing me to do some self-reflection. I would never have expected this from a school paper.