After much gnashing of teeth and pulling of hair, I finally decided on a subject for the autoiographical essay, which as I’ve previously explained here must be about another person or a significant event (on a single day). Presumably the subject should be a person or event that has had a profound influence on one’s life, or gives insight into one’s character.
There are several people I could choose, but I am not able to describe them well enough to write a good essay, so I prefer to write an event. But most of the events that have had significant influence on me took place over longer intervals.
Finally I decided to write about the fire that happened while I was at work late one evening about six years ago, and my reaction to it. I wrote a rough draft this morning; this one is actually approximately the right length. The rough draft doesn’t have to be posted to the class site until September 14, but I’ve got a lot of other things to do over the next few weeks, so I don’t want to put it off to the last minute.