I began the 2019 Fall Semester at CVCC, unsure of how it might go. I had never taken a formal English class, nor written an actual paper that would be graded or critiqued, so I was a little worried. I remember doing some writing here and there, but being homeschooled, I had not yet had to write for anyone outside of my family yet.  I had never written anything on a computer, nor typed out thoughts regarding specific subjects. So, on Thursday, August 15^th, 2019, I attended the first class of the semester, which was English 111. At the time, not knowing what to expect, the uncertainty was overwhelming as I sat down in front of the school’s computer and class began.

I wrote the first paper of the semester on the game of baseball and what made it so interesting. Let’s just say, if that paper had been graded, I wouldn’t have gotten a very good grade. I still didn’t have complete understanding about how to write a paper, so I remained fearful about how the rest of the semester would go. Since I was young, I wasn’t very good at writing, nor did I find it a fun thing to do. I enjoyed playing outside and playing video games, but for as long as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to get better at reading and writing. Now was my time.

My favorite paper of the semester was the one I wrote on my Championship Football Game. I played that game in 2017, but I still remember every detail about it to this day. Writing about it gave me a sense of joy. It was so much fun to sit down and put all my memories in writing. I never thought that would happen! Writing perfectly isn’t something that must be learned to live life or provide for a family, but it’s an amazing way to mark moments in history, and a way to hold on to, remember, and express so many of the special moments in our lives.

I’ve learned to appreciate what it takes to create a proper paper. The most important part of the process is knowing the subject and spending time reflecting on what the subject of your paper is about. So, for me, when it comes to writing a paper, I still have a hard time reading, and I often find myself skimming through words, instead of thoroughly reading every word like I should. In Maryanne Wolf’s “Skim Reading is the New Normal”, she talks about today’s generation and how all the new electronics and devices mess with our minds and don’t help with our brains when it comes to reading. She says in her post that “multiple studies show that digital screen use may be causing a variety of troubling downstream effects on reading comprehension in older high school and college students.” I strongly agree with the fact that if we put down our phones and simply pick up a book and start to read, we can learn new things and expand our minds. By reading, we’ll gain a better understanding of what great literature is and be better equipped to write good papers things and write amazing papers. Everyone can write and read, but if we just sit down and put or minds to work, push the fear of not knowing aside and just read, we can do incredible things and write amazing papers.

From birth, we are our parent’s responsibility. We are not capable of sustaining ourselves, nor others, even if we had to. We, as young children or teens, can only hold a limited amount on our shoulders in this hectic world. In Tara Westover’s memoir, Educated, we find her at 16 years of age in Chapter 15 and at the point in her life where growing, learning and changing begins. Tara struggles to grow and change while abiding under her father’s way of living. All of his rules, agendas and beliefs prohibit young Tara from growing and maturing into the woman she dreamed of becoming.

Young Westover had spent a decent amount of time reading and learning math here and there, but never getting the help she needed to go off to college. Her father didn’t believe in schooling and never took the time to teach her. He was too busy working, and so deeply entrenched in what he believed that it completely blinded him from helping and supporting his children and family. The father is supposed to be the leader of the house, the stronghold of the family, and for many people, like Tara, he didn’t fill his role in a positive way. Tara didn’t have someone to be a role model for her in life. She didn’t have a father she could look up to.

Tara Westover had a brother named Shawn. He was the best advocate for Tara. He was there for her in her time of need, and he was there when she was confused, frightened and scared of not knowing what was right from wrong (according to her father). Throughout all that happened to Tara, she never lost sight of her dream of going to college. Even though her father thought that going to school was a sin, she still never gave up on her dream and continued to push forward to make it to college. She went to BYU with little help. She overcame what her parents despised and didn’t want for her, but in the end, it all worked out and she no longer was enslaved to the threshold that her father had tried to force on her.

In Life, we are all forced to make decisions and choices that change our future and ways of living. Some of those choices may be harder than others, but what makes it work is if we stick with it and pursue our goals no matter how challenging the obstacles may be. Tara Westover’s father may have been with her from the beginning to put food on the table and provide a place for her to live, but he never gave her the love, support, and encouragement that she needed to fulfill her dreams and desires in life. Westover wanted to show that even in the worst of scenarios and troubling times that there’s always a way out; there is always a way to prosper and overcome what seemed impossible and scary in the beginning. Tara shows us that with a good heart and a little help every now and then, we can take hold of our lives and escape what holds us back. We can escape anything that may prohibit us from greatness, whether it be lies, other’s agendas, our mothers, our fathers, or whatever life throws our way. Escaping the Inescapable.

In the year 2012, my family and I were renting a house in Harrisburg, North Carolina. Renting a house was easier than owning a house for our family, but with a family of eleven, it’s hard to find a big enough house for all of us to fit in. My parent’s names are David and Stephanie, and my eight siblings are David Jr., Murray, Isaac, Josiah, Luke, Ryleigh, Joseph and Mary. (If you know your Bible stories, those last two names may have given you a good laugh.) My name is Seth, Seth Graves, and this is what being homeless taught me. Hopefully, reading this will teach you something too.

At that time, my dad had a job working in computer storage and my mom was a stay at home mom. We, the children, were all too young to get actual jobs, so we just helped our dad out with jobs in the neighborhood, doing things like mowing lawns, spreading mulch, and pressure washing houses and driveways. It was nice having five brothers and three sisters around the house; never a dull moment and always something fun to do. 

On the 4th of July in 2012, we went to a park to join some of our old church friends to grill out, play some games, and shoot off some fireworks. Our friends also invited another couple who had nine kids to the park to join us; the Kapitan’s. On that day, we began a friendship that I, nor my family, could have known would become a complete blessing to us. God lead us to meet that family on that day to bless us. A few weeks after that 4th of July, my Dad got word that he would no longer be working his job for the computer storage company. Somehow, after dad was let go, the homeowner we were renting from found out that he had lost his job, so he gave my family and I a three week notice to be completely moved out. Three weeks to move out with the huge amount of stuff we had (things like our beds, furniture, appliances, clothes, etc…) seemed impossible at the time, but with eleven people, some friends from the neighborhood, and a lot of long days, we were able to get it all done. Having been evicted from our house, we had no time or money to be able to move into another house or rent one, so we put all of our household items in storage sheds and tried to figure out where we would go next. 

Long before we knew we were being evicted, we had been invited by my grandparents to Atlanta to stay with them and enjoy family time with them. So, after we moved everything out, we got on the road for a four hour car ride down to Atlanta. In Atlanta everything was up in the air as to where we would go after the trip, however I didn’t really care and enjoyed being in Atlanta and eating good food. LIKE WHO WOULDN’T? Now that I think about it, at twelve years old, I didn’t really care about much of anything that happened to me, but I’d probably freak out and get really worried if that happened to me again being nineteen years old now. Praise God that isn’t the case today. It was so amazing to see how everything worked out in the end and to see where I am today. 

You may be wondering where we ended up after the Atlanta trip. Well, the Kapitans (the other family of eleven) lived on a farm at the time, and thought it would be awesome to let us come stay with them and live on their farm.

For close to one year my family and I were homeless, staying in other people’s houses and learning to be happy with the life we had at that moment. Looking back on my experience of not having a home, I learned that everything that happened to me during that time was awesome. God knew and had a plan for us all along, but He was the only one that could see it. He knew we would be alright and safe from being on the streets. When I think back to that time, when something is happening in my life today, like maybe a troubling time, or if it seems like I won’t make it through tomorrow, I can always remember my twelve year old self being so calm and happy with anything that happened. It makes me realize that I am blessed, protected, and have a loving family. I know now that God will always be there for me, and that no matter what happens in my life, I will always and forever be Blessed.

My high school football team, the CarolinaPride is an independent program comprised of students that either don’t want to play for their school team, are homeschooled, like myself, or don’t make their high school football team. Almost every year we get new guys come in from schools all around the Charlotte area that want an opportunity to compete and show off the talent that they have; some have the best talent in the Charlotte area and some can barely catch a football. With that being said, we weren’t always the biggest and best team, but some games made us feel like we could beat anybody that came against us. One of those games was the 2017 Independent State Championship Game vs. the Fayetteville Sandhill Titans.

That game started out like any other football game would normally start, but I started off rough. Within the first two quarters, I let guys score on me left and right, dropped a couple of passes, and gave up two touchdowns.  I remember my Dad standing on the top of the bleachers, being able to talk to me and give me advice on things I needed to start doing on the field and in the game. His advice really helped. So, instead of getting mad or throwing my helmet because I just gave up two touchdowns, I kept pushing myself to do better. I eventually got two interceptions, one touchdown, and at the end of the game, we came out victorious with an ending score of 32-19. I will always remember that one game no matter how old I become, and I will always remember the friends I made along the way.

I was a Strong Safety on defense and a Wide Receiver on offense. My Uniform Number was 82 and the 2017 season of my Highschool Football Career was probably the best season of football I played and will ever play in my life.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.