Question

closely read and annotate the excerpt from the autobiography positive by paige rawl. then, analyze how the author develops the central idea of the passage. use strong and thorough evidence from the text to support your analysis. do not simply summarize the text.
instructions:

• identify one central idea in the text.
• use strong and thorough evidence from the text to support your analysis and cite your evidence using line numbers in parenthetical citations.
• organize your ideas in a cohesive and coherent manner.
• maintain a formal style of writing.
• follow the conventions of standard written english.

while reading the excerpt, use annotation techniques such as highlighting and margin notes to demonstrate your engagement and analysis of the text.
nobody quite prepares you for the moment you see your own name scrawled on a bathroom wall.
to be honest, until i saw my own name, it never really occurred to me that all those names id seen before --all those names that appeared on the restroom walls of dunkin donuts and 7 - elevens, the castleton square mall and the corner gas station --represented actual human beings.
if i ever bothered to wonder about those people, even briefly -- will jasmyn actually love shawn 4ever? what happened to darren that we should never, ever forget him? --the moment surely would have passed long before i washed my hands and placed them beneath the whirring hand dryer.
then one day, i walked into a bathroom in my middle school, and there was my name in thick black marker. beneath it, other kids had added their own words in ball - point pen.
i never in a million years expected to see my name on this wall. id always considered myself a good girl--more glee than kardashians, more taylor swift than miley cyrus. i was born a joiner, not a fighter.
but i was beginning to realize that sometimes a person doesnt get to choose whether she joins or fights. sometimes the joining is impossible, sometimes the fight chooses you. the universe plucks you--you, specifically -- out of all those souls out there and hands you something that makes fitting in and going with the flow utterly out of the question.
im sorry, the universe says. im afraid youre going to have to fight.
and when you stare back at the universe, not understanding, it simply shrugs. youd better start now. or this world will destroy you.
i didnt have a choice: i had to learn to fight.

Explanation:

The author initially saw names on bathroom walls as just names, but when her own name appeared, it made her realize that sometimes one is forced into a fight rather than having the choice to join or not. Evidence includes her shock at seeing her name (lines about walking into the bathroom and seeing it) and her realization that she had to learn to fight (lines about the universe's 'choice' for her).

Answer:

One central idea is that sometimes life forces an individual into a fight when they didn't expect it, as shown by the author's experience of seeing her name on a bathroom wall and the subsequent realization of having to fight.