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Gabriel Palermo
Professor Ashley Marcum
UWRT 1103 052
16 February, 2016
Journey of Discovery A Memoir
If I talked about a growing love of literacy throughout my life, I would be lying. No
matter how hard I tried, literature has never been one of my big interests; however, I have
developed a love of science through a few key events. This requires a whole set of literacies to
even begin to understand, from just getting the jargon to understanding the complex mathematics
used to describe the universe. Most of my literacy experiences did give me an appreciation for
literature, but more than anything, they have propelled my obsession with anything related to
science. From my grandfather, an engineer, to my father, a diehard sci-fi fan, I have been
exposed to all the coolest topics in science for most of my life, and I have decided to devote most
of my time to trying to understand and maybe advance our knowledge of the universe. My
literacy experiences have drawn me towards a love of science and discovery.
I was homeschooled up until the fifth grade, which means my literacy experiences might
be a little bit unusual compared to most other people. Despite my familys efforts, I always shied
away from reading and writing; instead, I was drawn towards math. I saw this show called
Numbers when I was a kid, and this genius was solving crimes using his skills as a
mathematician. I would see pictures of scientists and mathematicians frantically writing all these
crazy symbols that I did not understand on whiteboards. It was a foreign language, like looking
at ancient hieroglyphics. I knew they meant something. Throughout my childhood I was

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obsessed with figuring out what they were saying. When we finally started working on basic
algebra, I became absolutely thrilled, because I knew I was so much closer to understanding
what they were doing. While I may have just been dealing with basic letters, I knew there would
come a day when I could make all those lambdas, epsilons, and thetas dance around on paper.
At the same time, I was developing an interest in both physics and space travel. This is
largely because of my dad and grandfather, both of whom had a strong interest in science, which
got handed down to me. My grandfather was an engineer who worked for IBM and worked on
the navigation computers for the Apollo program. In short, he helped us get to the moon. When I
was growing up, I remember gawking at this poster he had that compared several different
launch vehicles (i.e. rockets). I had a toy model of the Saturn V that I used to play with all the
time. I gravitated towards his interest in space (no pun intended). And then theres my dad. He
inherited my grandfathers love for all things related to space and aviation, which inspired him to
get his pilots license. He majored in physics, measured the speed of light as his capstone project,
and passed his love of aviation, spaceflight, and physics down to me. He would tell me about all
these crazy scientific phenomena that scientists are researching on a regular basis. I was
enthralled. You can say that a love for science runs in the family.
As you can see, I spent most of my childhood daydreaming about aviation, space, math,
physics, etc., while strong reading and writing skills (and similar literacies) were put on the back
burner, something to be learned just because thats what was expected. I only payed attention to
actual literature just for the grade. I acquired my literacies early on as a means to an end for
understanding the technical side of the universe. When I was a kid, I hated Language Arts; I
dreaded it every time the subject came up. I would just think Oh come on, why couldnt we just
do more math?; when I had already spent the last hour and a half going over multiplication

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tables. It was not until I actually started attending a public school when I finally began to realize
that literature did have a place in my life.
I started attending a charter school in the fifth grade, and naturally, I was a bit
apprehensive about my English class. I wanted to be the smartest one there. I wanted to be the
biggest nerd in that school. I came there expecting to make straight As, so part of me just
decided to buckle down when it came to English and actually give it a chance because if I did
not, then I would be facing a lot of trouble over the next few years. When I actually got to the
class, it was not anywhere near as bad as I expected. During that year, I had my first major
writing assignment, my first major literacy experience that I have a decent recollection of. I think
it was just a one-page paper about some sort of prominent even in our lives, or maybe something
we did over the past summer (I do not remember many of the specific details). The summer
before, I took my first flying lesson out of a local municipal airport which kick started my love
for aviation, so it seemed to be the most natural thing to write about. I think the point of the
assignment was to introduce us to the official writing process, the one that is divided into
discrete steps. In doing this assignment, I began to develop a respect for basic literacy.
My overall experience with literacy is somewhat similar to Gerald Graffs. In his article,
Disliking Books, Graff explains how he grew up with an aversion to books and literature in
general. While I did not have an active aversion to literature like he did, I definitely tried to
avoid it as much as I could. After starting college, he discovered that he loved literary criticism,
which became his passion. I had a bit of a turnaround with this assignment, while I did not
completely fall in love with literature like Graff did, I most definitely warmed up to it a little bit.
Graff mentioned the fear of being beaten up if I were caught having anything to do with
books was replace by the fear of flunking out of college if I did not learn to deal with them.

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(24). While I was not afraid of the social consequences of getting into books, I most definitely
had to pay more attention over the years due to demands from school. There were just so many
other things I was (and am) interested in, I have not had the time to devote to the study of
literature. My passions for science, aviation, math, etc. take up so much time that I cannot read as
much as I would like. It is actually making me feel a little self-conscious about my literary
abilities when I hear about all these people that can just get absorbed into these monumental
pieces of literature, while the only books I have gotten absorbed into are just a few science
fiction books that might best be described as brain candy, well, and Harry Potter.
When I was in middle school, I did the science Olympiad every year. The one event I
remember above all others is called reach for the stars, really just an introduction to astronomy
and astrophysics. This event consisted of compiling and memorizing enough information to fill a
one-page study sheet and take a test at the event. I fell in love with it almost instantaneously.
Given the tidbit I mentioned about my family earlier, it is no surprise that it is one of my fondest
memories of middle school. As I scanned through all the resources about astrophysics, I gained
most of my knowledge about our current understanding of the universe. I wanted to keep
learning as much as I could, which is why studying for this event made me want to go into
astrophysics. The material I read over for this even fascinated me to no end. I wanted to keep
learning more. I wanted to invest myself in space exploration. I wanted to be a rocket scientist
(and I still do). In the years since that event, I have broadened myself to simply learning more
about the physical world, but you can still see me light up like a little kid whenever I start talking
about space.
Around that same time, my dad suggested that I read a science fiction book he found. It is
called Red Thunder by John Varley. It is the story of a few kids around my age who enlist the

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help of a retired astronaut and build a spaceship capable of taking them to Mars, using old
railroad tanker cars, and a technology that is impossible by our understanding of the universe.
This book did not really do much for me when I first read it, but I think I have read it three times
now, and it is acting as a huge inspiration. The plot of this novel, combined with current private
space ventures (Space X, Virgin Galactic, Orbital ATK, etc.) is inspiring me to think about
pursuing a career in the aerospace industry, or maybe even starting my own company to compete
with them.
During last semester, I had one of the most prominent literacy events of my life. I had a
seminar class specifically for new physics students, and I got to write a research paper based on
recent scientific papers on a topic of my choosing. To be honest, there was always some doubt in
my mind whether or not going into the research business was right for me. This started changing
when I got around to researching for this paper. In my search for a topic, I found that I could get
interested in just about any kind of research that came under my scope, even though I could
barely understand a lick of what they were saying. This solidified my interest in doing research
for a living because no matter how boring it may seem on the surface, I could get interested in
almost any scientific topic. This will definitely come in handy when I end up as an engineer for
NASA trying to pour over the technical details of some obscure part on the engine trying to make
it more efficient, or as a researcher in industry trying to optimize the transmission of power
through electrical lines, or as an analyst crunching the numbers from a study on traffic patterns to
figure out how to optimally set the timers for traffic lights.
I guess you could say that this paper was like my introduction to the discourse
community formed by the scientists all over the world. By making me pour through a bunch of
research papers looking for material to write about, my professor exposed me to the activities of

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the scientific community. In a way, had me jump in for a bit to see what it was all about. This
became my entrance into the discourse community as defined by John Swales, in fact, this
scientific community may perfectly fit Swales definition of a discourse community. First of all,
it has a broadly agreed set of common public goals (471). These goals are to advance human
understanding of the physical world and to invent a better way to manipulate it. Second,
methods of intercommunication among its members (471), that would be the scientific journals
such as PubMed or the Optical Society, which I was using to listen in on the conversation as I
researched this paper. I could go on and talk about all six, but I think you get the point.
I think my introduction to the scientific discourse community provided by that paper
helped me to learn to read science in the same way that Sherman Alexie learned to read with a
Superman comic book. I used this research paper as an opportunity to learn about and research
some jargon commonly used in the physics community as well as a specific subfield. Similarly,
Alexi used a Superman comic book to become acquainted with some basic words and
grammatical structure (such as the usage of paragraphs). When Alexie was reading his comic
book, Alexie mentioned I cannot read the words, but I assume it tells me that Superman is
breaking down the door (130). In a similar fashion, I did not know what phrases such as The
freeform surface can be modeled using non-uniform rational B-splines (NURBS) (Ding et al.)
actually meant. In fact, I had no idea what many of these papers were talking about the first time
I read them. I had to read certain parts more than five times to actually get a picture of what was
going on, and even then, I still do not get the gist of many of the main points mentioned in these
studies. Despite this, I still found the research incredibly interesting, and I yearned to understand
what they were talking about, much like how Alexie yearned to understand what the words
meant in his comic.

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To finish off, I still have a very long way to go with my literacy development. While I
have not developed any sort of a burning passion for literature like many of the authors we
studied, over the years I have warmed up more and more to the study of literature, but that
always took a sidetrack to my education in the sciences. My familys background in the sciences
has acted as a sponsor for this interest in physics and space travel. A few science fiction books
recommended by my dad coupled with my knowledge of current space exploration efforts are
further inspiring me to develop my literacy in the sciences. I have become obsessed with learning
as much as I can about the physical world, particularly the mathematics that describe it.
Eventually, I plan to use my developing literacy to pursue a career in research, or possibly even
space exploration.
.
.

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Works Cited
Alexie, Sherman. "The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me." Writing about
Writing: A College Reader. By Elizabeth A. Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St.
Martins, 2014. N. pag. Print.
Ding, Yi, Xu Liu, Zehn-rong Zheng, and Pei-fu Gu. "Freeform LED Lens for Uniform
Illumination." Optics Express 16.17 (2008): 12958-2966. OSA Publishing. Web. 8 Feb. 2016.
Graff, Gerald. Disliking Books. From Inquiry to Academic Writing: A Text and
Reader. 3rd Ed. Eds. Stuart Greene and April Lidinsky. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2015.
23-28.
Swales, John. The Concept of Discourse Community. Writing about Writing: A College
Reader. By Elizabeth A. Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2014. N. pag.
Print.