Personal Narrative: How Reading Changed My Life

My literacy journey had begun earlier than most kids, according to my mother. I started reading in kindergarten, with help with the BOB books and the PBS show Between the Lions. I don’t know when I had started writing exactly, but I remember clearly writing short stories about my cat Stormy in 3rd grade. At that time we had to write weekly short stories, and I only ever wrote about my cat. In 4th grade, I had started exploring writing more; I would write plays for me and my friends to practice during recess. Most of them, I’m happy to say, were actually educational, so my teacher had even let my friends and I perform one about early-American settlers in front of our whole class.

A literacy narrative is quite often thought of as a personal account as to how the written word has affected one’s life. My literacy narrative, however, embodies my passion of art to define who I am and how it has determined who I have become. Photography has been a dominant part of my life since I was born; my mom loved to take pictures of me playing and she would get in pictures with me wherever we traveled. She would buy these cheap, disposable cameras in bulk and just let us kids play with them or she would take enough pictures of us that we felt like her little models. Sometimes, she would even develop the film she thought might be promising and add the photos to our baby albums she cherished so deeply. My mom was my budding inspiration for photography, and she is still my biggest supporter today. I have to thank the twenty-first

There are 26 letters in the English alphabet. Just 26 letters to form words, sentences, paragraphs, and finally books. Our language has come a long way over the years, and reading has highly impacted the way we live our daily lives. The Greeks used books of mythology to explain how things came to be and pass that knowledge from generation to generation. Authors use books to tell stories, and ideas, which spread so much farther than just by the word of mouth. Yes, books have greatly changed the world around us and have also affected my life personally.

Having to write about my own literacy is hard to do, first of all it’s hard to recall things that happened when you were a child let alone when I started to read and write, I remember going to school playing, the teacher reading to us, making vowel sounds and learning to write my name; I recall the teacher giving out the spelling list and taking it home to practice before Friday’s test, I would go to school hoping and praying that I would not misspell any words; as usual I missed a couple of words and I knew what that meant.

What started your desire to read? I bet that it was not some government issued reading program. How bad, did those programs bore you in school? It was different for me. Have you ever heard of the accelerated reading program? Well, the accelerated reading program began my love with reading.

Diving into past memories is something I am never found of. There is a lot of pain hidden behind some of my past experiences, but also a lot of triumph. It is always interesting to force yourself to retrieve some of those hidden memories. Sometimes the things you remember can be very surprising. Things that seemed long forgotten, can abruptly come back in a flash. The farthest memory I can recall about my own literacy experience is when I began first grade. At this stage, I remember feeling very confused about the whole purpose of going to school. I felt as if I was the only one not being able to keep up with the other children. I didn’t know what was cool, how to make friends, or even know how to play board games like “Candyland.” I was just not exposed to certain things that the other children in my class were aware of prior to beginning first grade. Most of all, I did not like learning. I liked doing things

In all honesty, I don't remember a lot about becoming literate. I didn't have a special moment or time when I knew that reading or writing going to take me somewhere. According to my mom she started to read to me when I was one, so there wasn't anything that could've excelled me much farther before going into kindergarten. One of the requirements in elementary school was to read every night which I believe was an important factor of me improving my literacy. Reading and writing used to me excite me because I would immerse myself into a book or write a whole new universe on a page. I made reading and writing something personal to me. I now realize that every book and every piece of writing can be worthwhile in one way or another.

4K, my earliest recollection of learning to read and write. “Find your line, it’s story time!” I sat on the blue line, closest to Mrs.Drone. She would read many books from various authors and after she would have a short lesson on a particular letter. A different letter each week. After learning about the letter we would head over to the tiny tables and practice writing and identifying the letter.

When I turned seventeen years old I started my own blog website. Due to this website I'm free to express myself to a audience around the world. I've always had a strong passion for literacy even from a young age. When I was younger I would write short stories to entertain myself . Having that outlet in my life gave me a chance to explore my imagination into a new depth.

My earliest experience with reading and writing were traumatizing especially when I was in the first grade. I still recall the experience I went through to this day. It made me really hate myself because the other kids were making fun of me.

Throughout all of my years of schooling I have had difficulties with my learning. Ever since I was young I had trouble reading and sometimes was slow to learn. When I was in first grade, my teacher noticed that I was learning at a slower pace and was having trouble keeping up with the material. She mentioned something to my reading teacher and they made a decision that I should take a test to measure my academic learning level . Once my results came back they decided to put me on an IEP and in a class to help me better my reading skills. I took that class throughout elementary school, continued into middle school, and then on to high school. This experience helped me learn how to work hard to try to prove to both myself and others that this does not limit my intelligence.

The time I usually spent reading when I was younger was now being spent doing homework and sports. At the time was taking pre-AP classes and playing soccer. All my pre-AP teachers drowned me in class work and homework, the time left after completing my school work was filled with soccer. I usually spent two to four hours practicing or playing soccer. Along with no time to read, I began to think reading was nerdy and useless.

At first, I didn’t think this kind of thing would be an issue. Fueled by confidence and charisma; my younger self ( at this point a first-grader) headed on his way to Kansas and further his education. Coming from Illinois, I had thought this transition would not change much from the schooling that I had become accustomed to. I left Illinois on a Friday and started school here on Monday (didn’t even get to miss school). Still with confidence, I strode into my classroom diligently and prepared for a new experience in this new environment.

All I could remember on my journey to literacy was my concern over my brother and sister’s ability to read and write including solving math problems. That did not really motivate not to become literate; I was extremely playful as a child. What I am able to remember is my first day of school, I cried like a baby when my mom dropped me off. I soon began to grow out of my baby stage and school became really interesting. Even though it was not as hard as it is now, the value that pushed me to be literate was how my teacher was able to discipline students if they didn’t give the best to their education.

The Goods and Bad throughout literacy Reading has impacted my life in many different ways throughout my lifetime, but his has also made me hate reading to the limit. I started very strong in my early days progressing to become a better reader than once middle school hit it was almost like I hit brick wall. After I hit after middle school I did improve but at a slower rate than where I should be. Now I find reading a waste of time