College memories

I had a lit class freshman year where the only grades were a midterm paper and a final paper. I got a C on midterm.

I worked super hard on final. It was on Dante’s Inferno. I loved the subject. Also I wanted to bring grade up. I ended up with a B in class, so clearly that final paper was good enough to help.

Start of next semester, I pick up the paper from the professor. He has a note that he’d continued to think about my paper and loved it so much he actually went back after grades were published and changed my class grade to an A-. Changing grades after submission is generally not a done thing, I learned later. I still have that essay in a box of things I’m proud of.

Then sophomore year, I took an economic history class, along with too many classes. I ended up overwhelmed and for first and only time ever, I asked for an incomplete from the economic professor because I knew I couldn’t finish everything for all my classes by end of semester. We agreed I could turn in my final paper in the summer. He said he’d dock the grade a full letter down for being late. That seemed fair.

i appreciated the reprieve, amd did well in other classes. Then that summer, I worked hard on the economic paper and turned it in by our agreed new deadline. Got it back later with note from prof that it was so good he decided not to knock it down a grade, and because he didn’t, I got an A in the overall class.

Twenty years later, getting my second degree in accounting, I had to take a required business writing course. I was annoyed at how basic it was. But I put up with it and, of course, excelled as I was 40 and I had been a professional writer by that point.

months after that class I was notified that the professor submitted my final paper to some college business writing competition (this is a thing?!?) and I won like $75.

Basically, I *can* write if the subject excites me and I’m not overwhelmed by other chaos.

Writing all these memories out reminds me I should get back to writing. Which… was part of the reason for starting this blog: to get back in the habit.