[GPC-ENGL] Formal Introduction w/ Location Description

Our very first assignment for this course is to write a formal letter of introduction that gives information about our interests and career, as well as our educational goals. After the personal bits, we are to include a five-sense description of our immediate environment at the time our letter is written. The instructor's name and my student email address are omitted, for purposes that are likely obvious.

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Dear professor and classmates:

Good morning to you! My name is Sharon Yarbrough. I am a mother of four and a first-year, non-traditional student at Georgia Perimeter College. In support of my career goal of an active psychiatric practice, my educational goal is to earn a doctorate in Clinical and Behavioral Psychology with a course focus of mid-to-late childhood and early-teen development.

The company with whom I am currently employed is a prestigious mergers and acquisitions firm in north Metro Atlanta. My role as Executive Secretary to the President is both stressful and rewarding as I assist the various partners and principals of our company. Outside of corporate America, I work with several personal clients as a Small Business Consultant, specializing in artist website portfolios, copyediting/consumer testing/trade show marketing for the independent gaming industry, and the organization of NPO charity events and educational outreach endeavors.

This letter is written at a business office. My desk is on the first floor of our building, in the reception area and around the corner from the president’s office. The furniture in our foyer and reception area is all heavy, polished woods and cushiony stuffed leather. The walls that surround me are a soft golden shade with white molding, as yellow is the favorite color of our owner. On the walls are several pictures in gilt frames depicting various leisure activities of Victorian-era aristocracy. The pictures are serene, in sharp contrast to the “Go get ‘em!” hustle and bustle of our 9-to-5 office.

Sounds that come to me are the quiet and rhythmic ticking of a black and gold analog clock on the wall above my desk, the hum of our network printer in the copy room, and the sound of traffic as it passes on the busy street outside our office complex. From upstairs, I catch the hint of jovial laughter as brokers discuss an article they read online.

To my left is our main conference room and, on the far wall of that conference room, a tall window with open blinds. I observe through the window that the day is dim and the bushes are a lush late spring green. Their leaves move with a strong breeze, and it makes me crave to be outdoors, to feel and smell the fresh morning breeze, to have an open-air gazebo for an office instead of a closed building with only plastics and laminates under my fingertips and regrettably stale air to breathe. With a smile, I add that little gazebo to my mental checklist for an ideal office for my future practice and return, mood lightened, to the business tasks at hand.

I have enjoyed this exercise, and I look forward greatly to our future correspondence.

Sincerely,
Sharon Yarbrough
Freshman, Georgia Perimeter College