My story

English has never been my strongest subject throughout my years in school. Although it

is my first and only language, writing essays and reading has never been one of my strengths.

Reading has never been an interest of mine growing up. I would look at reading assignments and

get anxious due to the amount of pages assigned. I would pick up a book and once I came across

a word that I was unfamiliar with, instead of looking up what the definition was I would often

just place the book back down to where it was. I began to look forward to the summer when

school is out, just to be displeased and aggravated with the amount of books our English teacher

would assign us, her students, to read. My mom would purchase these summer reading books,

happy that my mind would still be at work during the two month break from school, but most of

the time I would wait until the day before school to start reading and would just end up googling

summaries to assist me with the essay or test followed from the reading.

When I entered 9th grade, my freshman year of high school, all students were told that

we had to take a communications class. This class included learning correct grammar, writing 2-

3 page essays, and then presenting the essays in class. I was scared that this struggle with

comprehending reading would interfere with my writing abilities but that was not the case. In

this class, we were able to pick which topic to write an essay on based on the type of essay we

were learning about. I found this class enjoyable since the essay topics were entertaining to

write about such as “Who is your favorite person?”, or an argumentative topic such as “Is

homework necessary?”. Writing essays about topics I was interested in made me look forward to

expanding my vocabulary to get my point across. I ended the year with getting no less than a

grade of B, which made me content due to the doubt I had at the start of the school year. This

literacy experience was beneficial and has a special place in my heart as I learned that the

passion I had for writing about enjoyable essay topics has to be shared with other studies ,such as

history, in order for me to be pleased with the result of my grade. A literacy struggle I experienced was during my 11th grade English class. The entire year of English class was based on Old English literature such as The Crucible andThe Great Gatsby.

The amount of unrecognizable ancient words and the borrowing of other languages made it hard

for me to understand what the author is saying. I would begin to lose interest and start to zone

out once I didn’t understand what was happening and struggled with speaking up to ask

questions, which made me even more confused. With this, the result of my English grade

dropped dramatically. It wasn’t my top priority to fix my grade till towards the end of the school

year. My teacher, Ms. Forlini, would continuously tell us if we don’t do well on the final essay,

we have a chance of failing the class. I remember she gave us time in class to start writing the

essay on either one of the old English literature we read together in class. I looked around to see

people already on their second paragraph while I, on the other hand, had no idea on where to

start for the introduction or how to back my thesis statement. Realizing I needed guidance, I

went to my teacher after class for extra help and was grateful that she was kind enough to help

me with brainstorming ideas. I ended up getting a B on the final essay which brought my grade

up 5 points.

Not being the best with literature made me see authors, poets, motivational speakers,

songwriters as an inspiration. It amazes me how they can express what they are trying to say so

easily. For me, I always had trouble gathering and finding words to write an essay or just simply

to express how I feel. I love listening to and reading poems mostly because it is a way you can

beautifully express yourself and the world around us. It connects you with others that have gone

through similar experiences that can be difficult to put into your own words.

I used to see no point in taking English class, thinking that it wasn’t useful since I already

know the English language, but I learned that you can never know enough English. There is

always a way you can improve your writing skills or reading comprehension but it is up to you to

go through and make that enhancement. Being content with your use of words can make you

end up better off in the future. For example, college essays, different scholarships, etc; The

better you are at writing, the higher your chances of getting into college or receiving the

scholarship would be.

To conclude my language and literacy narrative, there are so many people and

experiences that helped me on my journey with my relationship with literacy. Throughout the

years, I’ve learned that literacy is much deeper than reading and writing essays, it serves as an

extreme benefit in your daily life. I have become confident in my reading and writing abilities

throughout the years, but I know that I have so much more that I would like to improve on. The

curiosity of learning is the key to success.