Before you begin an essay the first thing you need is a topic. Once you have that its easy.
Or is it? I'm here to argue that it ******* is not.
When you are given the slightest glimpse as to what an essay even is, around age 10 or 11, you are taught the hamburger method.
                                                                 The top of the bun: Your intro.
                                                                   The tomato: Your first point.
                                                                      The lettuce: Second point.
                                                 The meat: Your last and probably strongest point.
                                                         The bottom of the bun: Your conclusion.
Although some methods and structures are different this is a summation of what I was taught in elementary school. I continued with this idea that while writing an essay all you had to write was your opinion on a certain subject.
When I arrived at high school my first two English teachers were less then willing to add upon this "hamburger technique". They gave me the A I wanted and didn't give any notes of improvement.
I was convinced that I was on the right track.
When I started my third year of English my teacher arrived with a rude awakening and a failing mark.
Confused, digging and shuffling through the relentless amount of sheets she'd given me I tried to figure out the rhythm of writing an essay.
I looked around. Some students had no clue, while others grasped the concept as if it were their birthright.
                                  I, however,
                                                    continued to fall
                                                                             into a swirl
                                                                                            of do's and don'ts
                                                                                                                        for writing an essay.
All the sheets mentioned all kinds of things. But in the midst of all these possibilities there still wasn't
          
                                                                               a clear answer.

The sheets and booklets I'd received seemed to talk down to me with words that even though I knew and understood were now foreign to me.
The overwhelming need to prove that I could write an essay always bit softly at the back of my head. And when finally faced with the challenge the need chewed deeper and harder. Confusion setting in once more.
Leaving everything I was taught about essays

                                                                                     as a big
                                                    sloppy,
                                                          
                                                                                 blurry,
                                                           jumbled
                                                                                                       mess.
                                      Filled with words that made me feel
                                          
                                                                                                                 completely stupid.
                                                                             And rules that made me feel

                                                  suffocated and limited.