I have never felt more attachment to a specific class than I have to AP English. It’s basically been one class, with a few people between joining or leaving from both years, but the most of the people have stayed together. Gosh it’s been a great ride, where do I start.
Both classes just had such an impact on me. Ms. Allan was an amazing person, but I was in an Honors 10 class where I didn’t feel comfortable, I never felt like I could really be myself. I never wanted to be myself, I never had the desire to be remembered by anyone in that class. It wasn’t the place for me, but I wanted to find that space where I could thrive. AP Lang is where I thrived.
Low key, everyone always stressed about the work, and was always mad about all the work, and the constant stress, etc. To be completely honest, I have never been upset with both classes. There has never been a time when I’ve been genuinely mad about work, or stressed so much that I wanted to die. There were times where I was stressed, but I felt that early on we were taught to deal with it, and it wasn’t that bad. I have never enjoyed being in a class more than I have AP Lang and AP Lit. It was such an experience, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
AP Lang is where I started to really find who I wanted to be as a person. I started to be characterized by certain things by certain people, and it ended up being some of the best characteristics I have. One simple spelling mistake gave me a marking, a name: Bean, that would stick with me for the next two years. Something that grew from a simple spelling error would end up being something I identify with, and am proud to be. Ben would sometimes be forgotten, left out or ignored, had some self confidence issues or had a lot of doubt in himself, but not Bean. Bean was something that gave me life, and I am really glad I made that spelling mistake.
All the lessons we learned early in AP Lang were lessons that literally changed most of our lives. The Cave, oh my gosh. I think about The Cave almost every day because all I want to do is work on leaving it. That lesson hit me particularly hard because I had been a deep cave dweller for most of my life. I’ve been sheltered and strict rule follower. There are people who disregard the rules, which isn’t a good thing, but there are some people where breaking the rules isn’t always a bad thing. Sometimes you need to break the rules and destroy the cultural norms in order to get where you want to go, and that’s maybe not a lesson I learned completely in this class, but it all fits into this idea of the cave. We are finally about to step out of the cave, but I feel prepared. Sure I’m absolutely terrified, but it’s just life. We just have to go out and live life. We are members of the tribe, and the tribe doesn’t just read but it’s gonna change the world. Whether it’s defending against the dark arts, or leaving the cave, our little tribe is gonna do great things.
Thank you Mr. Kreinbring. Thank you for pushing us off of points and out of the cave, or at least trying to. Thank you for teaching me how to write, and how to enjoy writing. I’m gonna be honest, I was a terrible writer earlier in high school, I also hated writing with a burning passion. Now, it’s all different. I love writing and I feel so much more confident in it than I ever have. Sure it’s not at the level of some of my classmates, but from where it was almost two years ago, it’s a stunning improvement.
Thank you Mr. Kreinbring. Thank you for dragging us out of the cave. Thank you for teaching us how to use our voices, and teaching us how to think and how to argue, but not what to think and what to argue. Thank you for providing us with a safe space where we could all come during AP Lit and for some people hate everything about the class, but the classroom itself felt like home. AP Lit this year was one of, if not my favorite class. Our misfit group of students aren’t always cohesive, but it always felt like a family. AP English is where Bean lives and dies, and I am so happy I got to be apart of it. Thank you for everything Mr. Kreinbring. Thank you to all the other members of our tribe that made me feel like I was never alone. I had a lot of great friendships that were built and/or solidified because of AP Lang and AP Lit. Running may not have been high art (I still think it is) but your teaching was definitely high art Mr. Kreinbring. Pinto is eternally grateful for those two classes, Mr. Kreinbring’s unique and extremely beneficial teaching style, and all of the members of those classes. Thank you all for two years of great reading, writing, arguing and learning. Time to tackle the world y’all. <3