I entered Wake Forest with the intention of majoring in Politics and International Affairs. That desire completely eroded after doing very poorly in POL 113: American Government and Politics with Dr. Kathleen Smith. I approached this course with the swagger of a high school senior who was fresh out of AP Gov (but who had not scored high enough to place out of the course). I left with a jumbled understanding of my academic aspirations. This paper was my last for this wreck of a course. I knew that my grade was in serious jeopardy and so I put in an immense amount of effort. The assignment called for a six to ten page paper that discussed a national issue and a description of a manifestation of that issue. There were no requirements for what was to be considered a usable source for research.

I invoked some of my own experience in guiding my work on this assignment. I was, and am, interested in the districting processes that divide students into various public schools. This was a timely issue in my hometown of Weston, CT and for the state at large. I wrote this paper about these controversial processes in the light of the Brown v. Board of Education case. I compared tax rates, poverty, diversity, and school funding for two culturally opposite but geographically close areas, Weston, CT and Bridgeport, CT. This analysis required research into dense municipal documents, something that I had never thought of doing. This paper balanced the discussion of the national issue and case study sections masterfully. I did not rush through either for fear of mischaracterization or insufficient research. The theoretical connection between the two and the transition was rather smooth for eighteen-year-old me. Conversely, I am horrified at how mechanically clunky this paper was at its final draft. I misplaced periods, cited incorrectly, formatted long quotes oddly, and even used the wrong form of “its”. I am happy to see how much progress I have made in these four years since this piece. Although mechanical proficiency may not be indicative of good writing, it has certainly tracked my progress as a writer.