Writing Exercise 1: four sentences and a scene

1. My hometown was a wonderful place to grow up.
   1. Turning onto the street of my old elementary school, I felt nostalgic as I watched mothers warmly embrace their children as they ran out of the school doors and into their loving arms.
2. Laci had a rather eccentric style.
   1. I looked up from my desk to see none other than Laci Green wearing just that; green. From head to toe, she was dipped in the emerald shade, grounding her were two big rubber boots which looked like they could only be made for the Green Giant.
3. Mr. Brown is the worst teacher I’ve ever had.
   1. He walked into the room, slammed the textbook down on the podium and said two words I had never heard, words that fell into the pit of my stomach: “pop quiz.”
4. The room seemed very institutional.
   1. I followed my new employer to an office that had a placard with my name etched on it. I sat in the padded chair and admired the desk, seeing that everything had a place, even the individual paper clips were organized by color and size. Maybe this job wasn’t for me after all.

I heard the soft buzz of my cell phone on the nightstand beside me. As I peeled my eyes open for what felt like the first time, I sleepily rolled over and saw the illuminated text message in all capitals: “WHERE ARE YOU???” I leaped out of this sleepy haze and into my work clothes. I looked at the time and it was only 9 am. Although this is usually my normal work time, we do not start the work day on Mondays until noon. My only requirement for this job was to be a mind reader; there was no instruction or training. I simply had to do everything my boss wanted me to do and more, everything she simply did not want to do nor had time to do. By the time I arrived at the office, I saw her fuming as she consoled a patient who was waiting outside the door. My boss doesn’t work on Monday mornings but apparently this patient was in the system for 9 am and believe me, she was not very happy. My boss turned her glare towards me and said that I must have put the patient in the system for the wrong time but I knew that that was not the case. I found myself reflecting over what I could have possibly done wrong, my mind tossing and turning as if I was a lost ship on the raging sea. Sinking and sinking into more thoughts of how I was truly incompetent for this job. Although I was confident I had not scheduled the patient for the wrong time, I knew that the scheduling system was more than flawed. But, that did not stop the inner turmoil that was plaguing my mind. She called me into her office after the patient stormed out and I could feel the redness on my cheeks and the accompanying shame on my visage. She apologized and said that she thought she could come in early that morning, but that she must have forgotten. Immediately all of the overwhelming stress slid off my shoulders and onto hers. This was her problem to fix now.