To My Past Self (In Case Time Travel Becomes Possible)

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Dear Younger Me,

     This is you approximately 101 days into the future. No doubt you must be wondering how your college classes are going to be, and you must be trying to figure out if it is going to be just like high school. You also must be wondering how the English class you enrolled in is. Trust me, I know this stuff. I am YOU, after all. (Then again, I suppose it cannot be helped--over-stressing and pessimism were always a huge flaw in our personality.)

     Well, I'm just writing to give you some heads-up advice and to confirm some speculations that you might have in case man ever finds a way to "Saitama" Einstein's theory of relativity sky-high (look him up, and you'll know what I mean).

     First, regarding the English class, it is going to be challenging; but it is also going to be incredible fun! You will learn how to create blogs, structure public arguments, analyze controversies, study videos, and even return to familiar things like rhetorical analyses. You'll learn that the many news articles you read online, the forums debating about topics, the videos on YouTube, and even photo blogs all have specific relevance to SOAPSTone and are presented in such a way to achieve the maximum amount of effectiveness to their audiences. If you think about it, even conversations are conducted as such: we analyze our situation, our environment, the person that we are talking to, the tone of voice, and the words spoken to generate the correct responses! And all of this--ALL of this--you will learn in ENG 109H.

     Second, I want to give you an essential piece of advice that I wish I knew before: you must be aware that there is no such thing as an audience of the "general public." Everything you write--letters, reports, essays, texts, Tweets--always has a specific target audience, and every argument you make will influence certain people more than others. I know you think there is always a way to have the general public as your audience, but it will degrade the effectiveness of your writing because you are too busy trying to appeal to everyone when you could focus on one group of people. There will be a project that will require you to be very mindful of what I told you. Analyze everything--logos, pathos, and ethos--and be sure to include every single one of them into your writing.

     Finally, on the subject of writing, remember your high school grammar, but forget high school writing. This be college, foo! It's another league entirely; so do not be surprised if you find that you might not be doing as well as you initially thought you would do. However, keeping good grammar is an excellent way to start college-level writing--without good grammar, you can't make good arguments, essays, paragraphs, or even sentences. Brush up on some diction rules and vocabulary, and you should be good to begin!

     Don't worry about the difficulty of college. With college, it's just a matter of growing and adapting, learning how to build your skills and go beyond your potential. You will find disappointment, long nights, and even longer homework assignments, but fight through them! Seek to learn from each challenge you face, and you will be rewarded with far more than just a letter grade!

Sincerely,

Your Older Self