"Miss Kat! Tell me a story!"

I hear this often from the four year old boy and two year old girl whom I babysit for. It was pretty scary the first time they asked me. Talk about being put on the spot. And they read Dr. Seuss, talk about high expectations. Try to think for a few minutes? Nope, ain't no four year old got time for that. You have thirty seconds. Go.

By now I've gotten to the point where I can roll with the punches, especially once I figured out that if there are dinosaurs or sharks in the story it's immediately a hit.

Everyone loves a story. Stories have been around for as long as there were people to dictate them. Stories will be around for as long as there are people to listen. There will always be a demand for writers. Yet, I'm still hesitant to declare myself an English major. I'm still leading myself down the road of being in school for a million years after high school graduation majoring in Health Science.

I've always had an interest in medicine, inspired by my mom, a nurse. I've always been pretty good at math and science in school, even enjoyed it most of the time.

But something that I enjoy all the time: English class. It has always been my favorite, every year since Kindergarten. I look forward to that class like a child would look forward to their birthday. I dabble into writing exercises and new techniques like college students might dabble into promiscuity. I re-read my old work like someone might dream of the "glory days" and gaze nostalgically upon their pee-wee soccer trophies.

You could say I love it.

I just finished the first week of my Senior year, and yes it has met my high expectations. It's challenging, but it's easy enough to digest so that I don't have to wait a half hour before I go swimming and have fun. I have some very interesting classes, with great attention-getting teachers.

The top two things I learned this week:

One, stories have a lot more to them than what meets the eye and they have a lot more to say than what seeps between your ears. They are important, important enough to require all citizens of the United States to study them for their first twelve years of schooling, if not more.

Two, if what you love is not "worth your time," then what is? "The only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do... Don't settle."-Steve Jobs

And both of these things came from my English class.

I would hope after 12 years of English class I would know how to read a sign, if only I was courageous enough to follow it.
~Kat