Letter

Mr. Coon,
For as long as I can remember, reading and writing have been core aspects in the PCDS curriculum. Since the fifth grade, PCDS has taught me to appreciate good books and to realize the importance of writing well. Writing is an essential tool in clearly stating one’s objectives and motives while reading is a key ingredient to one’s complete education. In middle school, we students were "required" to read as many as seven books each summer. So naturally the summertime was when I did most of my pleasure reading while the school year would usually be devoted to class readings. In high school, I stopped reading as much pleasure reading as I used to in middle school simply because there seemed to be other things to do. Sports became more of a commitment, school became more time consuming and important, and other things seemed to always come up. Nevertheless, I still try to keep at least one book by my bed when I have free time to pick it up again. The books I like to read the most have always been historical fiction novels. Ever since I was little I loved learning about history because history is simply the best story there is. History is not only intriguing, but also it actually happened. It makes the story so much better to me since its true. Because historical fiction novels are tied into real life events, I feel more strongly towards the plot and the characters because it is bringing history alive. Some of my favorite books have been "Christ in Concrete" and "Killer Angles" simply due to the fact that these novels can put human faces and emotions in real life events in the past. I feel as if these books and books like them are important to society because they can show anyone what history was like not from a facts and figures standpoint, but from a more personalized level. Some of my best papers have been in history, again one of my favorite subjects, simply because I like to write about it. When I am inspired by my topic, I try my best to do it justice. Some of my papers last year covered the history of the Panama Canal, the Cold War, and twentieth century immigrant life. Once I get going on my topic, whatever it may be, it is easy for me to continue to write. On every paper it is always the hardest for me to get my introduction the way I want it. I hope to expand my abilities as a writer and I look forward to a great senior year in English. (442)