For the Paper 1 assignment of my Global Narratives course, we were to write an essay close reading a passage of our choice from any of the texts we had covered in class.

After a lot of deliberation, I settled on this simply paragraph from Rabindranath Tagore's Kabuliwallah. It almost functions like a montage, leaving the reader to fill in the gaps of what happens in the many years that pass over those few lines.

I submitted my essay minutes before the deadline. I was quite dejected. I was sure that this was one of the shoddiest essays I had ever, and perhaps I had shot myself in the foot by choosing such a short excerpt to close read.

But well, what do you know? Lo and behold, this essay is the first and only time I have ever received an A+ grade for an essay. I didn't even know that was possible.