Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Annie (Fox) Albrecht

  Ms. McKenna was my English teacher for school years ’98-’99 and ’00-’01. When I think of her and the times that I spent in her classroom, my brain is flooded with memories and it is nearly impossible to know which ones to list. And, as I write this, I feel the pressure to write well. It was a pressure I always felt in her class, but one that I accepted eagerly. I always wanted to give her my best work...my best self.
  Recently, I moved back to Juneau and was cleaning out all my ‘junk’ that I still had in my parents’ house. I found that I had saved nearly every writing assignment from Ms. McKenna’s class. I spent hours poring over the things I had written 10+ years ago. With each piece I came across, vivid memories returned to me, including where I sat, the way I felt, the things that were said, and presentations I gave or watched. I have never taken a class either before or since that impacted me so profoundly.
   Ms. McKenna always asked a lot of us, but never to please herself. The purpose of her ways, I believe, was to teach us how to dig deep within ourselves and find who we truly were and what we were capable of.  Through the written word, she provided an outlet for our mixed-up teenaged brains. It is clear to me that this ‘tool’ will be valuable to me my entire life, as I use it even now, to help make sense of a great life lost.

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