"THE SMALL STEP"-Richmond prompt

Hi guys. Below is my essay for Uni of Richmond. Your help will be highly appreciated

Richmond-Tell us about an experience in which you left your comfort zone. How did this experince change you?

THE SMALL STEP
"You have to keep quiet!" I could not take the noise anymore. It was the third lesson of the day and no teacher had come to class. I was hoping that at least our religion education teacher would come but it seemed he was busy in another class (my school had an acute shortage of teachers) and most of the other teachers were simply unwilling to come teach a half-asleep half-awake class. The students were taking this opportunity to make as much noise as they could and it was difficult for me to concentrate on my chemistry homework which was due in the afternoon.

"How about we do something different today? Instead of wasting the whole lesson why don't I teach you?" I could not believe I had said that. What was I thinking telling the class that I would teach them? In the first place, what did I know about teaching? All these thoughts were going through my mind as I waited apprehensively for the class' response. I was surprised when half the class welcomed the idea with applause.

I remember how scared and excited I was as I stood in front of the class with a chalk in my hand and all eyes on me wondering what I was going to teach them. I had never done this before. So I did the first thing that came to my mind. I went back to my desk and took my small Swahili Bible. Everybody looked on expectedly wondering what I was planning to do.

"Today we are going to learn in Swahili." I could tell they were all surprised by the look on their faces. This was because the religion education subject was entirely taught in English. I did this to make the lesson more interesting instead of the monotonous and boring lesson we had daily. We reviewed the topic on human ethics and made references to the Swahili Bible. During the whole lesson, I did not use any text book to teach. Everyone would chip in by asking questions on the areas they did not understand and the rest of the class would help in finding answers to their questions. So, I did not spend the whole lesson talking to them, rather, we spent it talking to each other.

That was not so bad. I thought to my self as the bell for end of lesson rang. Who would have thought that an impulsive idea to reduce the noise in class would lead to such a wonderful and exciting moment in my life? That day I did something I had never done or imagined doing before. I took a small step. And on that day, I learnt the true meaning of courage: stepping out from my comfort zone. Now am not afraid to try something new everyday in my life, because in trying, that is how I learn.

I was hoping that at least our religion education teacher would come, but it seemed he was busy in another class (my school had an acute shortage of teachers) and most of the other teachers were simply unwilling to come teach a half-asleep half-awake class.

The students were taking this opportunity to make as much noise as they could, and it was difficult for me to concentrate on my chemistry homework which was due in the afternoon.

I was surprised when half the class welcomed the idea with applause.---This is great!

I remember how scared and excited I was as I stood in front of the class with a piece of chalk in my hand and all eyes on me, wondering what I was going to teach them.

I did this to make the lesson more interesting,unlike of the monotonous and boring lessons we had daily.

We reviewed the topic of human ethics and made references to the Swahili Bible.

I thought to myself as the bell for the end of lesson rang.

Now I am not afraid to try something new every day ---Two words here.--- of my life, because by trying, that is how I learn.

Excellent!

:)

Thanks a lot Susan. Now am more confident to write even more essays.