Essay 6

Dull to Amazing:
My Thoughts on Boring People’s Pasts
An Essay by Alexander Hawley
8th Grade English
Pine Point School
October 25, 2010

           (Hook) Most boring people are obviously thought of as “boring,” but have you ever actually bothered to try to find something cool about them, because there probably is. (CM) Jem’s dad in To Kill a Mockingbird was way more amusing, nifty, and facinating than Jem thought. (CM) Even my boring, working mom is so much more interesting than I thought before. (Thesis) It can be very surprising what you find when you look deeper into a boring person.  
            (TS) When the chief of police in Maycomb County handed Atticus the gun, his children were perplexed as to why he did, but when Atticus got a direct hit on Tim Johnson, a mad dog that needed to be shot, his kids knew why. (SD) When Tim Johnson came down the street and, “gulped like a goldfish, hunched his shoulder and twitched his torso,” the children told their maid to call the police, which she did. (CM) Then, as I said earlier, the policeman, who had just arrived at the scene, wanted Atticus to shoot because if you missed it would hit the Radley house, and the cop knew Atticus wouldn’t miss. (CM) Then, just as the officer suspected, Atticus quickly lined up and downed the dog in one shot. (CM) The kids were shocked to see that Atticus could do this. (SD) Seeing this dog being shot made Jem and Scout realize that there dad was more interesting than they thought. (CM) Later on, while talking to Miss Maudie, a very amazed Scout found out that Atticus was, “the deadest shot in Maycomb County.” (CM) Furthermore, it was good for the kids to learn that their dad might not be the most adventurous, exciting, or funny dad that exists, but he still has some cool things left in him. (CS) When old Tim Johnson came down the streets, the kids got way more from it than they thought
           (TS) Something I did not know, or expect, to learn about my mom, who is always complaining about how we have too many pets, is that she had even more pets than us as a kid. (SD) There were always pets in her house whether they were permanent or not. (CM) She astoundingly had four cats, a dog, five guinea pigs, and even two birds always around. (CM) However, most awesome of all, which I could only dream of, is that she had a goat in her house running around for a day. (CM) When she was on a vacation with my Great Grandma Bobby, she saw a goat, and then my awesome grandma asked to take it home, and, astonishingly, the farmer said yes. (SD) It was amazing to learn this about my mom because I now know that she actually cares for pets. (CM) First of all, she remembers all of her pet’s names from about 30 years ago. (CM) She even might have a spot in her heart for having our pets around, especially our dog, because you can tell she did when she was a child. (CS) It is sad to say that all of the pets have died, and I still think that my mom doesn’t really like our bird, but I do know that she would have loved to have our bird as a child.
         (Reference Back) Now, it is plain to see that boring people might not actually be boring after all. (CM) Atticus, the boring reader, was actually a sharpshooter. (CM) Even more surprising is that my pet-hating Mom was actually a pet lover as a kid. (CS, Thesis)  There are many people in this world, and many of them are “boring,” but they might actually have some really cool secrets you just don’t know about.