A Change of Attitude About Writing

June 10, 2024, is the day that my son and I “agreed” to start meeting weekly to discuss his college admission writing, a date much later than my choosing, but one that worked well with his end-of-the-school-year exam schedule and his return from his school immersion community service trip to Jamaica, on June 7.

Because I know how long the writing process takes and how many college application essays, responses, and supplements that he needs to write before the end of the year, we hit the ground running the first week and started discussing how he should structure his essay for the second Common App Essay prompt, a prompt that his life circumstances “chose” for him when he was in elementary school and just embarking on his educational journey.

After about a month of us meeting weekly and him submitting three rounds of weekly prewriting revisions to me and my giving him written and verbal feedback on his revisions, I noticed that his prewriting document in Google Drive was a blank slate—every word in it had been deleted—so I immediately texted him so that he could figure out what had happened.

Later that evening, when I brought the missing content up to him again, he nonchalantly told me that he wanted to choose a different Common App essay prompt. As I tried to simultaneously process what he was telling me and search for the right words to use to respond to his change of prompts news, I asked him to give me space to gather my thoughts. 

About 15 minutes later, not nearly enough time for me to gather my thoughts, he told me that he wanted to select the fourth Common App essay prompt (“Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you?”) and write about how my making the observation when he was in fifth grade that he didn’t know how to write properly and making it my mission to ensure that he became a good writer is why he is such a hard worker at school and outside of it. Upon hearing him say that, my anger and frustration seemed to instantly dissipate. Had my writing mission had such an immense impact on him that he wanted it to be his story to share with college application readers? As I pondered that question, he returned to his room and reemerged three hours later with a newly completed prewriting document, which included a draft of his thesis statement:

“It was in fifth grade that my mom noticed that I didn’t know how to write properly and began providing me with a supplemental writing education to ensure that I would have a solid writing foundation and would develop a love of writing that would make me myself want to continue to grow as a writer throughout my life; I will forever be thankful for her astute observations and unwavering support, for she not only has enabled me to thrive in my school English classes but also has instilled in me the importance of dedication, consistency, and hard work in all aspects of my life.”

I have known since my son was in sixth grade that he has been appreciative of my supporting him along his writing journey because he periodically sincerely thanks me (in fifth grade, as he wrote in his prewriting, he was upset that he had to do extra writing work outside of school and often complained and made a scene at the library where I taught him, by screaming and crying). However, I never knew that he attributed his overall success at school and in his extracurricular activities to the supplemental writing work that he has been consistently doing since fifth grade because it has taught him that if he is dedicated to becoming better at something and he consistently works hard at becoming better at it, then he will eventually excel at it and in turn with want to excel at future endeavors—I am still processing that and probably will be for some time.

~ Christina Caputo

Founder & Owner of ★ W O R D S