pay days

this morning i got one! a pay day that is! (actually, i got two of them!)

i just got an e-mail from jenni that says it all: "Thanks for teaching me to be a good writer. Thanks for always being willing to edit my papers to death and helping me learn :). It has helped me along the way and continues to help me now. We got a paper back and our CFA's were talking for about 15 mins about how they marked it up a lot to correct a lot of errors and such and how we need to be professional writers.  Then we got our papers back and the comment on mine said, "The writing is professional and thoughtful, and well revised and edited. It was a pleasure to read a basically error free paper".

pretty cool, huh?! but to appreciate this you must catch a glimpse of jenni's freshman and sophomore years at college.  jenni emailing papers to me, requesting an editor's eye. usually at midnight. ha! not really. more often at 1 and 2 am. we divised a system of sending copies back and forth with coded highlights to keep track of changes, comments, and recommendations.  those were some late late nights. sometimes i couldn't see straight, so i'd get up at 4:30 to continue giving feedback to what she'd written thru the night. 

but then something happened. it's called her junior year. no more late nights. i probably only saw two papers that year. i enjoyed the restful nights. i enjoyed even more reports of how teachers frequently asked to keep her papers...as examples of what they were looking for, for future classes. 

i have to admit, there were times those first two years where i wondered if i was just helping her get a better grade. i mean, by college, can you really change or improve a writing style that much?  but one day some very big things suddenly sunk in. like comma usage! the OVERusage suddenly disappeared! strength of content increased. fabulous conclusions finished her papers with 'pow'! and i realized that all those 2 am's were worth it! 

i haven't seen a paper now for 2 1/2 years. (except ones i've requested to read out of pure content interest).  so today's e-mail about the comments on her paper was a definite pay day for this mom! 

oh...but i mentioned two pay days, didn't i?  well, maybe jenni was listening to elder holland saturday morning.  i just have to say, the second pay day clearly outweighed the first. 

oh...and p.s. you're welcome!