My First Writing Assignment and What I Learned From it

It was the first thing I remember writing. I was in first grade.  I described a recent dream.

We had a short assignment; this was the last year I was in public school before I was homeschooled through high school. I could barely spell, so I'm sure it was hard to read (I also wrote a story that year about "rassling" with my brother).

I had recently had a nightmare that my family was living in a wing of our church. We slept in one of the children's classes. The hallway was yellow, and my classes were often on the other end. One night there was something suspicious going on. My dad went to find out what was going on, but he was in his underwear. This dream was at least a year before we moved to the church's parsonage two blocks away and really did have someone break into my dad's truck--which was right outside my window-- and take all his work tools.

That was the whole story that I wrote for the assignment: my dad walking through a dark church in his underwear to track down something suspicious.

My parents weren't excited about the underwear detail. That is the only interesting thing about my story, though.

I learned that day to be careful what I write because people will react to it. I also learned to include the interesting details.