Someone Who Changed My Life

Let’s just say I wasn’t enthusiastic about the idea of taking a second English class. Actually, it was the last thing I expected to hear considering I didn’t do too well with my English 125 course the semester before. It was due to this class that I was put on academic probation to begin with. As part of my reinstatement, I had to work with a new academic advisor and needed to get my grade point average back up above a 2.0.

My first impression of Dr. Fontenot was that he seemed like a reasonable man. He seemed to be very serious but not serious in an uptight way but instead focused and very direct. I was skeptical when I was recommended to him but as I sat there watching him look over my past semester’s work I felt like my academic future was in good hands. That was until he recommended English 225 as a required course for the semester.

I explained to him how I thought it wasn’t such a wise idea to be taking a higher level English class when I didn’t do so well previously. I pleaded to him to reconsider another course of action by explaining to him how my last English teacher didn’t help me to improve my work. I told him about the time when I came up to my teacher after class to help me get above “C” work and how she replied that a “C” was a good grade. This teacher, who looked at me as a dumb jock, thinking that I had no intelligence and that I wasn’t going to get any better. I didn’t want any part of English. I fulfilled my English requirement at this university and didn’t plan on taking any more English courses…or so I thought.

I remember how I dreaded the first day of this new English class. It didn’t help that the whole campus seemed to be going into the same building at 12 noon. It was bottleneck getting into the front door thanks to the new construction that was taking place. As I finally found the classroom I saw some friends of mine were taking the same class. Whew! At least if I gotta grind this semester out, I got some peeps that I can work with. I found a seat next to them and started bullshitting about the party last night and the party going down at my house that night.

The last person to enter the classroom was this 6 foot 3 inch middle aged man in an olive suit. I remember thinking, “damn, this dude is HUGE”. I mean, when this guy stepped in the room, you knew he was there. Then he introduced himself – Dr. Ralph D. Story, badass from Cleveland, Ohio – and instructed us to take out a pen and a pad. The in-class assignment (WTF?) was to argue any 1 of 10 topics.
Luckily for me, one of the 10 topics was to argue whether or not the university should pay student athletes. Considering I had just argued this point the night before at my house party, I felt like I was in good enough shape to write a decent paper. “Maybe I’ll get a ‘B’ out of this”, I thought.

The following week I was heading into the same bottleneck as I trudged into class. As I was walking – more like standing in place – up the stairs, I bumped into Dr. Story.

“Hey, you’re Kwansah Madani”, he said.

“Yup”, I replied.

“You’re a dope ass writer”, he said.

“Thanks”, I said incredulously.

“I’ll see you in class alright”, and with that he walked through the entrance.

I walked to my desk slightly dazed. “How did he know my name?”, I wondered. “Wow, he thinks I’m a pretty good writer.” As i took my seat, Dr. Story got up and announced to the class that we were going to be joining into groups and critiquing the top 10 papers from last weeks in-class assignment. This exercise was to help us discover what it takes to write a good paper. The only request was that the people who wrote any of the 10 papers be anonymous when we critique it.

I remember it feeling similar to English class in high school. As we sat in our groups of four and got down to critiquing these papers, I was interested to uncover the secrets behind being a good writer. Going through each paper, one by one, I saw how impressive each writer’s talent and style was. Then, to my surprise, the next paper we went to critique was mine. God, I couldn’t believe it. I was smiling my ass off on the inside. I couldn’t believe that me who couldn’t do better than a “C” the semester before, could write an “A” paper. I remember when my group started asking my opinion about my paper and how I had to tell them that I couldn’t participate. I felt like a million bucks.

At the end of class, I went up to Dr. Story and told him how much I appreciated him giving me an “A”. To this day I think about how that class was one of the turning points in my life. Not only did it give me confidence in myself but it also established a real friendship that still lasts to this day.