Potential narrative topics

AP Lang junior year of highschool- write an essay on how something influences you in your life

1.) A clearly identified event:
In junior year of high school, my AP Lang teacher Mrs. Landvatter asked us to write an essay at least 3 pages long about something that has influenced us in our lives. I was struggling with school that year and the only thing that ever seemed to comfort me was music and playing guitar. so i wrote about music, but not just any music, I wrote about metal.

2.) a clearly described setting:
it was an assignment we worked on for about a week straight in class mostly unless we didnt get to a specific milestone. class was always dull-lit because our teacher used two lamps with the windows open to save energy. it wasnt necessarily bad, it was just different from what you'd normally picture a classroom. the tables were arranged like a big U and i sat at the back left of it. right where Landvatter could see me messing around and being a fool.

3.)Vivid descriptive details
Music at the time was my freedom. i would come home from school, exhausted and angry at how i was doing academically and resort to music. it was my exploration and joy. Sometimes i would even listen to mozart while doing algebra to help me relax and focus. Around the time that this assignment was given, i started listening to metal. not the metal that comes to most minds though. not some long haired hippie screaming about killing someone. i listened to Black Sabbath, Electric Wizard, Egypt, Electric moon, etc. it was this new form of empowering audio that felt like heavy sludge or something flowing into my brain. it was my own escape that i was exploring and it was an amazing style of music that i had never hear before. and it was my motivation for writing that english paper cause it was the one time i could express my feelings about the school and pretty much give a middle finger to it all while still getting an A. the assignment was a completely personal essay and i knew i could do well on it. i knew that as much as my teacher didnt want me to do something like that, i was going to be let off the hook.

4.) a consistent point of view:
this class was a good class, but my head just wasnt always in it. i was doing better by this time of the year, but it was still a challenge. i knew i hadn't passed my AP test and that was something i wasnt very confident in from the beginning. but i knew i had gotten better at writing, i had always been a good writer. i just didnt always put the effort in it and Mrs. Landvatter knew that. she knew i had it in me but i never took her seriously because i didnt want to accept her help. but like i said, i was doing better. so i was asking for help more often and things were getting better. but this assignment was my chance to explain to her and the class of how i felt about highschool and how much music influenced me during that time.

5.) A clear point
this essay was a positive thing for my grade, as well as my relationship with my teacher. She knew i had the potential to write amazing things and she had seen that in the previous year but since i lost interest in school, i hadnt been giving it much effort. so for her to be okay with the class and myself writing something as personal as we wanted and sharing it with the class it was just a positive experience. an effort with no suppression in what we wanted to write about as long as we wrote it in a clear style.