FLEMING 1

Manuel Fleming
Lynn Raymond
UWRT 1103-104
7 July 2014
The Beginning of a Journey
As a child that comes from a family of educators reading and comprehending was pushed
on me and expected from me at a very young age. The number one person who has helped me
develop a plethora of reading an comprehension skills is my mother. My mom Kimberley, had
many different ways to teach me how to read and comprehend. Included were: flashcards, read-
ing books created to help kids read, staying up late with me and helping me read and understand
books, the examples are numerous and I could continue on. My mom actually taught me how to
read through a book that was created to help people learn English. She didn't want to teach me
out of a normal Teaching Your Kid How to Read because she felt that they were more watered
down and didn't teach as well. The most import important way in which she helped me to read is
by taking me to the library and encouraging me to read as many books as possible. I remember
her always asking me Man do you want to be successful, or not?, and this pushed me to keep
persevering.
An embarrassing event that affected me greatly occurred to me in my freshman year of
high school. I remember this day like it was yesterday. It all started as a normal day but when my
teacher called on me to read for the class my life was changed forever. When I began reading I
felt nervous because I felt as if I had something to prove to my classmates and my teacher. My
nervousness was intensified greatly after I began stumbling on the word conscientious. When I
couldn't pronounce the word after the second time my body began sweating profusely and my
FLEMING 1

mind began to panic and ever since that day, my body reacted this way to speaking and reading
in public. Reading and comprehension has never been a very hard task for me. I contribute this to
beginning to read and write at a young age, and also being competitive with my sisters, Brittany
and Brianna. My older sisters and I use to race and see who could read the most books the fast-
est, and my mom would give us subsequent tests or quizzes to ensure that we were actually com-
prehending what we were reading. I vividly remember my sister Brittany talking junk to me and
saying, Man you read too slow you're going to lose and come in last! It was statements like
this that helped fuel the competitiveness with my sisters which helped me become a quicker ana-
lyzer and faster reader of books.