Mr. Spitzer by Madison

Mr. Spitzer by Madison - June 2021 Scholarship Essay

他总是看起来好像一只脚grave. The skin on his head was always peeling or was scabbed because of sunburn. His glasses sat on the tip of his nose and he wore khakis and a polo shirt everyday so he could focus more on teaching us rather than deciding on a new outfit to wear, just as his role model Steve Jobs did. He was a man of science; his room was decorated with nothing but pictures of famous scientists and quotes with the theme of never giving up. His name was Mr. Spitzer, which was ironic because if you were too close to him when he was speaking he would spit on you, and he was my 5th grade teacher.

斯皮策先生是最大的倡导是坏蛋ious. There was a tissue box covered in yellow construction paper with “Curiosity Box” written on the front in black sharpie, sitting on top of this tiny bookshelf that held all the books we had in the class, calling it a library. He would tell us to put any questions we had in that box, and every Friday at the end of the day, he would take out all the questions and answer them. Some were ridiculous like “How long can a seahorse go without pooping?” but others actually got me thinking, such as, “What would the moon look like if the sun did not reflect its light off of it?” I learned a lot of weird facts from this activity. But it taught me that society and mankind as a whole is where it is today because someone asked a question, and that if we want to be great and leave our mark on the world, we need to start asking some questions too.

I feel like Mr. Spitzer was supposed to be a scientist, because I could see how much he loved it and the passion he had whenever he told us science fun facts; I never asked him though, if his plan was to be a scientist that is, but if life just didn’t go as planned. I know he would have left his mark on the world by discovering the rest of the ocean or coming up with a way to travel across the galaxy in a person’s lifetime. But even though it seemed to me that he was not in the career field that he always wanted, he still loved being a teacher, and always encouraged me as well as my classmates to find something we were good at and excel at it. He always said, “Everyone is smart in their own way, you just have to find where that intelligence lies.” He understood that we were all different, and tried his best to help everyone find their niche; mine was writing. He would have us write for 30 minutes after recess, as a way to not only calm us down but also get our brains working again. “Even if you have nothing to write, write that down,” he always said. I always had something to write, whether it was something that happened to me that day on the playground, or if I had the bright idea of writing about butterfly invasion. I remember the times he would have us write stories and share them with the class; whoever was sharing got to sit in the big rocking chair that engulfed you into its cushions while everyone else sat on the hard carpeted floor. Everyone always looked forward to my wacky and funny stories, so I always begged to go first. The laughs and reactions from my classmates made me feel good about my writing and motivated me to write more; anytime and anywhere. When a story was a class favorite, Mr. Spitzer would put it in the little library in the back of the room; it was equivalent to getting your novel published and making it on the New York’s Times bestseller list. My stories always made it to the library, and my classmates lined up to read them. This was where I found out that my intelligence lied in my creativity, and that I was able to express myself in different artistic forms.

Mr. Spitzer taught me two important things my 5th grade year; that curiosity did not kill the cat but instead taught it something new at the expense of one of its nine lives, and that everyone is a genius they just have to find what it is that they are a genius at. It was these two lessons that got me into Southwest's’ Fashion Design program, getting recommended for AP Lang, and being a part of my school’s newspaper; even going as far as to winning an award for my writing and artistic skills too. And I accomplished all these things because I stayed curious and asked “what if?” and I used my intelligence to find the creativity in everything I did and apply it. It was because of Mr Spitzer telling me to stay curious and creative that I found my passion for fashion and can tell my story through my designs; and I will continue to use what he taught me to leave my mark on the world.