Ms. Linda Thorpe

To me a hero or heroine is a leader who has a positive impact on people, a person that leads or guides you to a specific goal. I have been living for eighteen years and in my eighteen years of living I have only met one person who fits the qualities of a hero or heroine, Ms. Linda Thorpe, who at the time, was teaching 5th and 6th grade students. She was a teacher who went above and beyond her teaching duties to help me with my reading skills.

After repeating the 1st grade, I continued on through school without being on the proper reading level. When I got to the fifth grade, all that changed. Ms. Thorpe took the time out of her busy schedule to tutor me. During the school year we would stay after school, for one day a week for one hour. The average person that is reading this essay would think that she stopped tutoring me at the end of the school year. You are wrong; she continued to tutor me in the summer. We would meet two times a week for an hour at Michel Library. By the time I left her class in 2006, my reading skills were up to grade level. When I entered into high school I was able to read a book called The Scarlet Letter with clear understanding.

There was a time in my life when I had to read a book on a lower level than the class because the one they were reading was too hard for me to understand. Now I’m able to read books on a higher level than the class. Not only that, but after finishing the tutoring sessions, I began receiving reading awards for my outstanding achievement.

As I sit back and finish up this essay, I begin to wonder what my reading would be like if I had never gotten tutored. Would I be this far in my education? Would I be able to take college classes as a junior in high school? I can't imagine what my life would be like without the tutoring sessions and my teacher, Ms. Thorpe.