Growing up, I always swore against the teaching profession. I didn't want to have to deal with unruly children, or students who just didn't care about their work. However, I once asked my older cousin, a history/geography teacher, what she found so rewarding about her profession. She told me she loved those moments when a student finally understood a concept, or finally figured something out that they had been struggling with. "The 'aha' moment, you mean," I said, in an attempt to clarify. She responded, "Yes. The 'aha' moment, and the fact that I could help steer my students towards the 'aha' moments--it makes everything worthwhile."
For the first time, I experienced leading someone to their "Aha" moment. On Saturday I had my first experience as a writing consultant through the College Mentoring Project. I won't disclose my tutee's real name in interest of privacy, but I will refer to her as Lisa during this post. Deeply in preparation for the college application process, Lisa was obviously facing trepidation when presenting her ideas for her college admissions essay. She had a full page of bullet points describing a summer experience that she felt was relevant to the essay prompt provided. After listening to her present her ideas, I only had one thought.
Lisa already had an entire essay. It was simply spread out between her mind, her lips, and the words she had already laid out on paper.
Through out the consultation process, I helped her narrow down her ideas and expand on them, but it occurred to me that I wasn't really doing anything remarkable. While she looked at me as if I were an all-knowing writing genius, I couldn't help but realize that being a writing consultant is not what I previously thought it was. It's not just proofreading papers, and looking out for grammar and spelling mistakes. It's about turning on the mind's "faucet" and letting the writer's ideas flow freely. When I managed to turn on Lisa's faucet, I saw that "Aha" moment manifested on her face, and I must admit: my cousin was right.
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