David Magarici

P1D1
Haugen
January 15, 2015, 2014
Brick by Brick the House was Built
Some may say that they were born with the talent, some others may say that they had a
breakout day that they decided they liked writing, while another person might point out
that a particular individual pushed him to make the first step to begin his career as a
writer. But, my start as writer is a bit more different than what the average persons story
would be, this moment could be not be considered as a single day in which I woke up
and decided that I wanted to write and analyze about various authors opinions, but
more of a gradual process throughout my whole life.
What first got me interested in writing was my sophomore year teacher Raul Nunezs
selection of required texts to read for the class. This collection included impressive
essays about how famous authors thought Latin America was built, structurally as well
as socially, together with Existe America Latina, a composition by one of the best
Venezuelan authors of all time, Arturo Uslar Pietri. This text influenced me in a vast
manner because of its way of criticizing traditional perceptions of how Latin Americas
culture was built, making me ponder and start developing my critical thinking, a basic
skill for essay writing. Mr. Nunezs way of explaining hard topics and chapters inside a
text made it so easy to understand that was almost a hook for my mind since I also felt
a way of relieving my thoughts and disapproving things I didnt agree with through pen
and paper. This was my first step into writing for me.
After my experience with Mr. Nunez I had regular teachers during my other high school
years, until I came across with my favourite literature teacher in senior year, Mrs. Doris
Garber. She required us to read many extensive books that many of my friends didnt
even read because of their length, but I wasnt like that. I read each and every single
one of the manuscripts and there was one that specially touched me, One Hundred
Years of Solitude, the text that made Gabriel Garcia Marquez win the Nobel Prize for
Literature in 1982. I considered this series of stories that explained human life and that

vast family tree explained in a single book a complete masterpiece and motivated me to
bring back the author that my teacher Raul Nunez forged inside me. At that point I was
so into writing and essays, and got so much experience and knowledge from diverse
books readings that Mrs. Garber recommended me to enter the Schools essay
competition, in which, with my essay Rescued by the Enemy got me the second place
in the acclaimed contest.
On the other hand, my writing in English was never as successful as my writing in
Spanish. It still was a gradual improvement since I always dominated both English and
Spanish, and my development in Spanish continuously derived in an improvement in my
English writing skills but them never got as virtuous as my Spanish ones. Even though,
my teacher Ludmila Kariakin also influenced me in my English writing, making me go
over my limits and try always for the best I could do on a language that I didnt dominate
as well as Spanish, my native language. She gradually manufactured important English
essay composing techniques inside me when she made me read various essays, books
and texts of her likings and require me to analyze them, and, after some time, I finally
started composing reasonable essays in English. This skills were built in me exactly at
the time that college admissions essays were due, and using those skills, I composed
the paper that got me to Purdue, and because of that, I am eternally grateful for all the
help that she gave me.
As you can see, I was not born with my writing skills in both my native language and
English, and did not appear all of a sudden from dusk till dawn, but instead they were
slowly constructed brick by brick, just like a house, via my caring teachers, and by the
vast readings from impressive authors that I studied. And therefore, all of this externals
factors made me a better writer and a better critic, analyzing many historic and actual
societal concerns.