Dear Readers

Dear Readers, my name is Ryan Ross and i have been on this planet for 22 years. I have done more than a normal person has in his life time. I graduated high school in Kingman, Arizona almost a year early. Then i decided to join the military to serve my country. I was stationed in Yokosuka, Japan for nearly three years then was transfered over to Oak Harbor, Washington. In those short three years i have been all over Asia and had the opportunity to travel the world. Being so young and seeing so much in a short time has really made me grow as a person and as a friend. After being stationed in Oak Harbor for less than two months I was sent to Iraq. I was there for nearly eight months and enjoyed helping others when i was over there. After i came back to the United States i was honorably discharged and had my eyes set on going to college and being the first person in my family to do so. This is my first quarter at Everett Community College and my first quarter going to college ever. I want to help others and make a difference in this world and i know that a college education will help me along the way.
Before actually picking any of my classes I knew that I would have trouble in the English department. English was always my downfall in high school. Coming into class on the first day i knew from that moment that i would have help along the way in English98. From seminars to group sessions everyone was inputing there thoughts into my writing assignments and that was a major boost of confidence in my writing skills. Throughout this quarter I have learned how to bring my sentence structures together, build up my punctuation and grammar. I also learned how to summarize and paraphrase other peoples work.
During our nine weeks of class so far we have read two books. Both were very interesting and I enjoyed both books, one book more than the other. The first book we read was Three Cups of Tea and it was really hard to sit down and read because there was so much going on during the whole book i was lost but in the end it help me understand education and other countries that didn't have it. The other book was The Absolute True Diary of A Part Time Indian and this book had my attention from front to back. The way it was written was really easy to read and I learned alot about the Spokane Indians.
So my time in English 98 is almost over but i surely will not forget it. I have learned so much about reading and writing that now i have the skills to advance in my future English classes. I think i have came a long way since that first day in class where i was scared about the class to actually enjoying going to class and learning more. Knowledge is endless and I am now on the path to further that knowledge.