Page 18 - Senior Link Magazine Spring 2018 - Online Magazine

HONORING SENIORS
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Senior Senior

The

Gauntlet

by Natalie Chaudhuri

y reputation, she was a self-evaluation which, instead of But because of that assignment, I
undoubtedly the scariest evidence-based analysis, included realized my love for literary writing. I
Bteacher in the world. The older personal anecdotes and specific developed a fondness for journalism.
students called her class “English on critiques. Mrs. Kingston taught me And when Mrs. Kingston spent the
steroids.” She had taught my best not only how to write, but how to be following lunch periods giving me a
friend, my best friend’s older sisters, complex. She showed me that those crash course on Frost poetry for fun,
my best friend’s dad and even my who have complex sentences have I found my passion for all types of
principal. Her students went on complex thoughts, that those who are creative expression.
to become famous astronauts and complex are the “read readers” of all
Harvard alumni. She was Mrs. Sharon their subjects, whether it’s English or Mrs. Kingston also helped me see the
Kingston…and she was the best Calculus. Only in senior year had I power in the elderly. At my school,
teacher I ever had. begun to understand what that meant: we annually celebrate Grandparents’
taking the initiative to give a subject Day in October. The students come
Each day, she’d peer at the class with your all, daring to take the road less together to write essays and read
knowing eyes, as if she could detect traveled to be the best. them aloud in order to pay respect to
our childlike ignorance. We shifted grandparents and “special friends”
nervously in our seats, somehow Any time she spoke the words, “I who have impacted our lives. From
both too hot and too cold in the room. may be going out on a limb…” we “your grandparent is a gift” to “they
Our pitiful attempts at expository knew we were entering the realm of put the grand in grandparent,” the
writing lay on the spotless desks, read reading. You think your English writing prompts were variegated. And
perfect English-teacher handwriting quizzes were hard? You haven’t yet, while every essay I’ve written
dotting the margins with comments taken a Mrs. Kingston quiz. If you has been about incredible loved ones,
such as “yikes,” “:(,“ and “IRONY.” weren’t willing to annotate, highlight, by the time I reached senior year, I
Evidently, all of us had a lot to learn. and look up every allusion, you had realized another person I could have
And learn we did. best rethink that 100. Yet the most been writing about all along. While
difficult assignments were the open- she wasn’t family, Mrs. Kingston was
Before every essay, Mrs. Kingston ended ones, writing projects like the as amazing as any gift, and as grand
would state, “I have thrown a gauntlet short story prompt she gave us on as any grandparent.
at your feet.” In other words, she had Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine.
issued a challenge, and it was our The pressure was high—doubly so “We are more similar than you think,”
decision what to do with it. Perhaps because this was the first high school she once told me. “I’m just older and
one of the greatest challenges she opportunity I had to write fictionally. wilier.”
threw at us was the “metacognition”:

18 Lubbock Senior Link