A little help, please

[Starrys]

You see, for my English class we have just been assigned out first essay. It's to be about ourself. This seems to be, for me at least, a terrifically hard topic to write about. I belive that I know what I want to do for the opening paragraph, which is to begin rather egotistically and then apologize because I'm more modest then that, but I'm stuck at two things. The first is how to begin the first paragraph. I don't want to start out with a "Hello. My name is _________" and go from there, but I'm at a lack of other ideas. Also, I'm unsure if I sould write the essay as a short autobiography, or just write about different attributes which I retain.

Thank you for your help!

[Tdol]

There's no need to introduce yourself- the formattin of the essay will do that. I'd just begin with the first thing you want to say about yourself.

[Ouisch]

It's always a good idea to grab your audience's (or reader's) attention with the first sentence.

How about...

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Four shots ripped into me and I was off on the greatest adventure of my life. But first, I should tell you a bit about myself. I was born...." What will make it even more intriguing is if you never make any further mention of that "great adventure."