recent letter i'm happy with

Dear Gordon Mathis,

I write to you not to affect decisions which have already been made, but merely to comment on the influence the Galloway School has had on my academic career and chosen life path by means of Dr. Kelley.

I recall, just previous to my interview with the Goizueta foundation during my senior year that you mentioned my teachers referring to me as “the quintessential Galloway student,” this was, and still is one of the highest compliments any teacher could every pay me, as during my highschool career, continuing on to my experiences in college, I try to reflect the Galloway ideals of proactive education and lifelong learning.

Also in my senior year, I applied to several colleges. When sending out college applications students were usually asked to send letters of recommendation, an evaluation from the perspective of those who knew us best, academically. Students generally chose those teachers who had the most impact on them, so naturally I chose Dr. Kelley. I am not sure I will ever know what was in that letter, but it seems to me that now, after having grown some small amount, I have been put in the position to return the favor.

Having said that I will begin my letter of commendation by borrowing from my teachers’ words and stating that Dr. Kelley is the quintessential Galloway teacher.

Taking Dr. Kelley’s class for the first time in the 10th grade I knew very little of what to expect. I had heard good things from various students, confirmed by the fact that Galloway alumni were constantly popping their heads through his door to say hello, a trend which did not diminish with time.

One of the first texts we analyzed in Dr. Kelley’s class was The Birth of Tragedy by Friedrich Nietzsche. That day we spent an entire block period discussing only the first sentence, during which Dr. Kelley taught us about the Dionysian and Apollonian dialectic in art.

In a single class period I learned how to view art from an entirely new perspective: recognizing both the creator and audience in the work, (a method which I still use to impress my teachers). More importantly, however, this particular class opened my eyes to the possibilities and undeniable significance of literature. From that day on, everything my world literature teacher, Ms. Fell, had been teaching began to make sense. I could not believe all that could be said about a single sentence; I did not take this discovery lightly.

To say that Dr. Kelley made me want to write would be a trite but true statement. Perhaps then, it is better to say that if literature is my everything, I consider to have gained everything from this course.

As a comparative literature major I hope to pursue a career in academia and also, with any luck, publish a novel or two. Given my chosen life path, it is obvious the impact Dr. Kelley’s particular field of expertise bears on me and the craft I work most to perfect.
It is thus obvious that the following is of no little significance:

Dr. Kelley taught me the writing process.

As simple a skill as that may sound, reduced to so few words with such unattractive connotations, as an academic I hope to be in a perpetual state of composition, and as such always employing this method to the best of my ability.

Dr. Kelley taught me how to most effectively organize my work and structure my sentences with clarity as the main objective.

Dr. Kelley taught me that “Only difference signifies” a principle that is not only catchy, but essential in any kind of analysis, academic or otherwise. Through this method I know that identifying the meaning in any text requires one first to identify distinguishing factors, a delicate process of analysis and synthesis whose importance grows increasingly evident the more I read.

Because of Dr. Kelley I will always have an exercise, a literary callisthenic by which I may come closer to my ultimate goal of the metaphysical, elusive, “better writer”.
Because of Dr. Kelley I developed a continuing curiosity about literature and the motivation to really live what it means to be a life long learner.

The skills I learned from Dr. Kelley have allowed me to take my education into my own hands and, now in my college years, view school as an end unto itself and learn purely for the sake of learning.

I have recently taken a class concerned primarily with letters as a literary form. Bearing all that I have learned in mind I have written this with the firm notion that a letter, like art, is more often than not a self-fulfilling act.

Walter Benjamin, in The Task of the Translator states that we should look at the notion of art as alive with “an entirely unmetaphorical objectivity.” The act of writing a letter fulfills the desire to give life, that is, to materialize and make external the feelings that simply cannot be contained within us.

This notion expresses best the spirit of this letter; an attempt to manifest outside of my self what I cannot willingly nor ethically contain, namely the gratitude I feel towards Dr. Kelley and the firm belief that he is responsible for many things if not whatever quality led me to be “the quintessential Galloway student,” an attribute which I think would qualify one as the quintessential Galloway teacher.

Sincerely,





Amanda Morelli