Choosing the Perfect Topic: A Highschooler's Struggle

I remember one afternoon Kaley came home from school not being herself. She did not pet me, she did not talk to me, she did not do anything. It was like I had done something that made her mad. When she came inside, she immediately sat down and searched the internet for persuasion topics. I finally realized that she was not upset with me, she was just frustrated that she could not think of a good topic for her Be Interesting assignment. I remember at one point she yelled “This is so hard.” I was confused because I did not know that picking a topic could be so frustrating. Finally she started to ease up and I figured out that it was because she had finally chosen her topic: college tuition. She immediately ran into the kitchen to tell mom that

she was going to write about college tuition to convince her audience that the college tuition is too expensive and something needs to be done to change it.
When she came home the next day, she was in a much better mood.

She sat down at her desk and started writing. I jumped up and put my paws on the edge of the table to see what she was doing. Of course, she was working on her Be Interesting assignment again. I saw that she was brainstorming. At the top of her page she had written her guiding question, “Is college tuition too high?”. Below, she had a list of questions to support her claim. I could tell based on her questions, that she wants the government to be her reader. I could tell that she wants the government to realize college is too expensive so they can work on lowering the

cost.
After coming up with her guiding questions, Kaley began her research. She outlined her paper according to her questions and then began to take notes. She did this for so long that I started to feel lonely. I sat next to her the whole time waiting patiently for her to pet me or give me some attention. Sadly, she was so into her paper that she ignored me the whole time. I should not have been surprised, though, because she loves doing research. Finally, after what seemed like days, she appeared to be done with her research with nothing left to do but write her paper. I was so happy because she had been spending so much time on her assignment that it felt like she had forgotten about me. Thankfully, she took a break from the project. A couple of days later, she once again sat down to write her paper.
It was a Thursday night. It is my favorite night of the week because we usually lay around and watch movies. Unfortunately, our plans were cancelled because her assignment was due the following week. I once again sat by her at her desk and watched her type. It took her so long that I actually fell asleep while she was writing. When I woke up, she was done. All she had left to do was think of a title. I could tell that this was hard for her because she sat in silence for quite some time. She eventually typed the words “Debt Country.” I barked with joy because I thought that it was a perfect title that would entice the reader.
Upon finishing her writing assignment, Kaley seemed happier.

We went into the living room and she was telling mom about her essay. She told her that she tried to make the essay persuasive, but not too dramatic. She said that she wanted to express her feelings in a way that would help the government see the problems with such high tuition costs and to realize that something needs to be done with lower the cost. Finally, she told mom that although writing is not her strong suit, she enjoyed being able to express her feelings about this in writing. She just does not know if the way that she went about doing it was done well or

not.