Hey I’m a freshman and we have a big essay coming up. My teacher grades on the AP rubric and I’m not doing really well in her class. Can you guys tell me what to fix on this essay and what i should do so i can get at least a 7? Thxs a lot even though this ain’t what college confidential is for.
Prompt: interview someone who has had coming of age in or after their post secondary education and convey the person voice in the narrative.
Story of Jim Stephenson
It was dark, cold, windy night when Jim’s family had heard the news; his brother had died in a car crash. 73 years after this incident here laid Jim; a peaceful, calm, self possessed elder with a thousand of memories to share. When asked about his childhood in his low lighted,quiet, tranquil home.His eyes fluttered to the sky seeking to his joyful memories but the only thing that could be remembered was the harsh reality of life.
It was 1931, a small innocent infant came into this world. Only did that infant know that his life would become everything that he would not want it to be. Jim was the second oldest to a family of 6. Growing up with an absent father and a mother who worked from paycheck to paycheck was difficult. All he ever looked up to was his brother.” I followed him around wherever he went, whatever he would do, I would do. His priorities were my priorities”, said Jim. Jim’s brother played a huge role in his life as a mentor and also a role model.The summer before the start of high school drastically changed Jim’s life.John was killed. This took a huge blow to their family. Jim’s mother started going through depression and wasn’t able to work while his family needed money and food, Jim was the only person to look up to.Jim dropped out of high school to provide for his family. He took on two jobs and also took care of his siblings. He worked at the local grocery store from dawn till dusk and helped out local farmers from planting the crops too gathering the harvest.Though long sleepless hours gained him just barely enough to support his family, he knew one day it would all pay off. Jim thought he had come of age when he was a teenager but only to know he would face many more complications in his life that would question this stance.
Jim was 20 years old when he joined the air force. Him and his best friends all joined the air force to get away from the struggles in Norman, Arkansas. He left his responsibilities to his youngest brother Ben. Jim just like all the other young boys that had joined all wanted to be pilots. “I wanted to soar in the clouds. I wanted to experience what it meant to be free,”sighed Jim. The recruiter that day picked everyone except him to become a pilot. He was heartbroken, he was moved to the engineering field. There he worked tireless hours building and testing planes and other gadgets.Though he never saw the battlefield , he experienced the true meaning of hard work. Something that only real men ever face.Eight months later all his best friends who signed up,died in the dog fights against the communist. Many years after that incident, Jim says God was the one that placed him at that unit. He worked in the air force for 4 years becoming a veteran in the Korean war. Jim thought practically had come of age. He was a 25 year old with no life, no education and no wife. He spent the times that were laboriously given to him whining about his life and looking for work. At the age 26, with no hope, he wandered into a church
service.” I fell in love with Jesus ever since that day.”,Jim praised.Jim says the only person he ever started depending on was God. Jim soon meant a beautiful girl, Mandy.Soon in enough he started falling in love. “There was only one problem, she wouldn’t marry any guy without a job”,Jim chuckled. So I followed her all the way down to Arizona trying to win her love and also get a profession.”
Jim attended Arizona State University and studied to become a teacher.He loved math ever since he was a kid and thought it would be a valid choice to become a math teacher. There he studied endlessly on the hope he could be a teacher. Hope was what drew him to finish college he said. He took a part time in a local restaurant to help pay his bills, After what it seemed like forever he finally graduated.He married Manda in the December of 1965 after many long hours of studying to become a teacher. After their first child, Jim finally then understood what it meant to come of age. He says he didn’t reach his true coming of age during high school,military, or any post secondary education.”I reached it when I understood it what it meant to become a husband and a father.Although, I still don’t manage everything correctly but at least I give it my all.
Fast forward to the present, Jim Stephenson has four daughters all of which are older than fifty years old. He has 14 grand kids;him and his wife live peacefully in their cozy homes in Gilbert, Arizona. He is a retired math teacher and professor. He has one piece of advice to every young adult out there. “It’s not what life throws at you that matters it’s how you can take it and
