Introductory Letter

My name is Monique Johnson and I am originally from Bronx, New York, but I have been living in Missouri City, TX for about 10 years. I am a freshman here at University of Houston. I just graduated from Elkins High School this past May.
As far as my writing experience, I have always had an interest in writing ever since I was little. I loved to write short stories, poems, and music lyrics.
My writing experience in high school was kind of tough for me. Two of my four English classes were Honors/AP courses so they really expected a lot from us. Usually we had to write papers ranging from 5 to 8 pages over novels we read. We also had to write ICE's or In Class Essays either arguing against, agreeing with, or qualifying a certain thesis in preparation for the AP test. Sophomore year I usually made B's and C's for the most part on my papers. Junior year I made A's and B's on my papers but I hardly ever made higher than a B on the ICE's.
Like I said, when I was little I enjoyed writing poetry but back then I was focused on the rhyme and now I'm more focused on the meaning even though I still sometimes employ rhyming in them. I had to write poetry for almost every English class that I have been in since middle school. I also had to write poetry for my AP Spanish classes.
I feel confident about my writing when I can truly express in words how I feel about the topic well enough so that people can read it and fully understand it. When I write poetry, I think I feel relieved because most of the time I write when I'm emotional whether it be sad, angry, happy, nervous,etc.
Writing can be fun for me when it's a topic that I am interested in, but it's not always easy for me to put my thoughts into sentences. I think I am an okay or good writer, but sometimes I still make mistakes with the basic things like punctuation or grammar. My personal opinion on writing is it is a good way to express yourself and it can sometimes be a stress- reliever when you're writing poetry or writing in a diary.
In this course I hope to become just an overall better writer and be able to express my ideas more clearly without as many mechanical mistakes suck as punctuation.
I can't really think of anything you need to know to be able to teach me better except that I'm still not sure about semicolons.
Finally, something interesting about me is that it is a lot easier for me to express my feelings on paper than orally because I am a very shy and passive person. I'm working on getting rid of that shyness and passiveness, but It's still easier for me to write which is why I usually prefer emailing my teachers over calling them. Also another thing that's interesting about me is that I have family from all over the world: Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Suadi Arabia, The Phillipines, Malaysia, India, Germany, England, and Canada.