The Love Of Reading And Writing

My interest in reading started at an early age, before kindergarten. I have my mom to thank for reading a book or two to me at night before bed. My mom has told me that because she was a stay at home mom before I started school, it was her main goal to teach me as much as she could by herself, before any teachers had the chance to, and that included reading a couple children’s books to me every night. My grandpa had a hand in this too; he bought me a Dick and Jane storybook and before long, I had the entire book read by myself.

In elementary school, I loved to read. Writing was not a big deal either due to the fact that we did not have to write four page essays. It was in first grade when I started to like reading. Reading has just been freshly introduced, considering we had only completed one year of school. My teacher always read to us and I wanted to read those books as well. Throughout elementary school I started to read Junie B. Jones books, which were my favorite. All of the books were about a first grade girl and her different adventures. I had always enjoyed reading those books. Each book had a different topic which I would always relate to in some way. Although I liked to read, I did struggle with reading comprehension which made me dislike writing as well. I hated having to read and then go and write about it. To this day, I still do not like reading comprehension, but my feelings toward reading and writing have changed.

I’ve always been an avid reader. When I was in elementary school, my mother would take my brother and I to the library every week to pick out books. I would take the books to school and read them all in one day. I loved reading so much that my teachers would call home and tell my parents that I was reading my library books during class instead of my textbooks. Reading has always been a major part of my life. I used to aspire to become an author. I even wanted to become an editor at one point. I used to make daily household newspapers and magazines for my entire family to read and enjoy. My strong love for reading certainly came in handy during my freshman year of high school.

Some of my favorite childhood books prepared me for life, the hardships, the love, the friendship and the genuine kindness. Perhaps, my mother picked books she wanted me to gain life lessons from or perhaps every book holds its own wisdom, its own adventure, its own love story and its own sadness. When I have bad days, I often quote Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day written by, Judith Viorst. Because, even in Australia you are bound to have a few bad days and running away solves nothing. When I think about Motherhood, I could quote the Giving Tree written by Shel Silverstein. So, when I think of Children Literature I think of life lessons I learned from books. Some that led me into adolescents like The Brown Bottle and Are You There God? It’s me Margarete. But, more importantly all the books and the life lessons that laid upon those pages led me into adulthood.

“Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope.” -Kofi Annan. Literacy in my family tree will never be brought back to scholars or philosophers infact Many in my family have not seeked and further education and many have not even finished high school.my love for literacy has been placed into my heart by my sister.As a child my sister has always handed me book after book each one with a smile on her face.

My desire to read is equivalent to housework, you know it has to be done, but you never want to do it. There has to be that one driving force to get it done; that one part of you that screams get your life together and do something right. There have been good and bad moments in reading for everyone, including me. I can honestly say I am very focused while I read the letters my boyfriend sends home from basic training. Other times when I am forced to read an article for work in order to better my abilities, I would say I am less focused and driven to do my best because it is not something that interests me. You know there are better things you could be doing but you’re stuck doing the work. Having to push through to prove to others and yourself that you can do what needs to be done.

Most people I know have a love or hate relationship with reading and writing, depending on their upbringing and experiences with each. Our world revolves around college and getting a degree in order to go into the real world to get a job. The real world can be described as paying your own bills and living out on your own. We get a job to make money, which is what most of us love to make. Parents always push their kids at a younger age to start reading so when they get older their reading skills will already be well developed. If these kids hated reading in the early stages of their life, like I did, they will soon come to realize that reading is very important. I went through a long process of hating writing, then having to learn how to love it. Many people have been in the same foot steps as myself.

At this moment, I like to read a lot as long as I have the time to do it, I enjoy reading in English and Spanish. I enjoy reading short texts, magazines, comics and I also have had a great time reading detective, suspense, adventure, and science fiction novels. I confess that I started to read a lot 2 years before I studied my BA in English Language Teaching degree. I think II was 20 years old when I started to read complete novels.

I used to loathe reading and writing. I still do. There is however, a difference between my feelings regarding reading and writing in my past compared to my feelings now. I didn’t know who I was or what my thoughts were on many subjects. I also had trouble connecting with the stories I was reading. The main turning point in my attitude towards reading was in my ninth grade English class. My teacher, Mrs. Schultz, taught me, or maybe I finally decided to listen, and I found a deeper meaning and moral compass in the book we read. From then on, I looked at literature in a different light.

I love to read, but it didn't start out that way. When I was in first grade and we are just starting to learn how to read books, I remember being mad because I wasn't in the advanced reading group. The advanced reading group got a different book than everyone in the normal reading level and got to work in a different section of the room. This made me so mad that I decided I didn't want to try which, when I look back on it now was not the smartest thing I could've done. I knew how to read but it never really appealed to me, especially since I wasn't the most proficient reader. And why would I want to read a book when I could play with a Bratz doll?

I have always read ever since I was a little kid. As I got older reading had a minimum impact on my life. I didn’t have much time to read. Other activities got in the way of me reading. At that time I would only read if I had too, never for fun.

I can hardly imagine my life without begin able to read or write. These skills are not vital to one’s survival as are obtaining food, clothes or shelter; however, they have been and still are definitely “life preservers” and “instrumental to my survival.”

I am four years old and my father is walking towards me holding a book. He has dark brown hair with gray streaks and blue eyes. He is wearing blue scrubs, as he usually does, because he happens to be an electrophysiologist (a type of doctor that fixes heart rhythms). He picks me up, sits down, and places me in his lap. He begins to read Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham to me, giving each character their own voice (which he did with every book that he read to me) as I look at the colorful pages. I later found out that he changed one of the lines to avoid upsetting me. He replaced “I do not like that Sam-I-am” with “I do love that Sam-I-am.” What he did caused me to feel special, which is one of the reasons that I love to read today.

Reading is an essential part of life and is the cornerstone of learning. Without it, you wouldn't be anything in life. Reading is one of the most valued commodities on earth. However, most people don't value reading as much as others do. When I was younger, reading was something that I valued, but the older I got the less I valued it.

“Mom, why is the sky blue?” Questions have overtaken my life from the time I was a toddler. My younger days would start out with an overwhelming amount of questions for my poor parents. Quite often, they would have to answer with the iconic, “that’s just how it is” in order to stop my ever flowing narrative of curiosity. Like most, my childhood was filled with a natural interest in the world and how it worked. My yearning to know all not only shined through my juvenile character, but also in the amount of interest in school that I began to take part in.