Dear Mrs Bagley
My name is Ruby Rochelle Burke. My name was actually a very controversial topic for my parents, as, years ago a hairdresser named Ruby cut a piece of my mum’s brothers ear. Ever since the event she has disliked Ruby’s in general, so did not give in easily to my Dad wanting the name. Rochelle was her choice, in the hope that if I didn’t like Ruby I could change it.
In my family there is Val – my mother, John – my father, Luke – my brother and Sam – my sister. We have a dog named Herb, who is a vizsla and very loving, but unfortunately I have found over the years that I don’t like dogs.

I spend hours painting and drawing, and love art. I sew lots of my clothes, and made my year 11 dinner and prize giving outfits – in my fear of spending money. I decided early on that I didn’t want to waste anything.. my time or money, so I have to get pretty thrifty.
At our house we have set chores (dishes etc), but the rule always was that on top of this if we wanted to do extra work we would get paid $10 an hour. I capitalise on this, doing all the laundry, changing of sheets and making of dinners. On a no plastic push Dad and I decided that I should make more of our food, so once a week I make Dad crackers, hummus, muesli bars, frooze balls and bread for his lunches. This isn’t exactly a hobby, but such a big part of my life that I thought I should include it.

This year I am so desperate to achieve excellence in all of my subjects, but am excited because I feel like I can do it – having chosen subjects that I love!
I love salmon, but have recently found profound joy in canned smoked tuna. I don’t know how I haven’t known about it all this time.. but let me tell you, it is Amazing!
in regards to talents, I can wiggle my ears, but (I am ashamed to say) am a compulsive blusher, so at gatherings I never mention it as everyone pulls out their various oddities.

This year in English I really want you to pick apart my work. I am sorry, I find myself constantly annoying teachers with questions, but I want so badly to be better that I can’t help myself. I think my strength lies in how much I love English – there is no better incentive to do well in something than having a passion for it!
I am not a very good speller, having mild dyslexia… but spellcheck helps me with that! I think my main issue is how I write. In my head I talk in a old fashioned, slightly sarcastic way and often find myself getting too deep – weaving my sentences in a way that is hard to understand and unpleasant to read. It would be great if you could tell me when I go overboard!

In conclusion, I love english.. and I would appreciate if you were hard on me, no sugar coating needed!

Thank you for reading my letter!

Ruby