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Cover Letter
1. Throughout the revision process I tried to look over the peer evaluations and the
evaluation Professor Agosta gave and implemented it into the paper. Even though I did
not finish the draft, I took the evaluations and used them for the rest of the paper.
2. After I revised my memoir, I feel good about it because my biggest problem was not
explaining the detail and I tried to focus on the for the remaining of the paper.

Apurva Patel

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Professor Rebecca Agosta
UWRT 1101-010
7 October 2016
The Life of Apurva Patel
Early in my life I have been hearing the you learn something new every day. I heard it
through the voice of my parents, my teachers, and other sponsors in my life. Since I was young,
and as far back as I could remember, my schedule was almost the same. Wake up, go to school,
come home, do homework, and go to sleep so I never really had a lot of days where I would
think I learned this today that I did not know before. As my life progressed and I had to
overcome new obstacles; my whole perception and the way I saw things changed, and in turn
gave me the thought that I learned something new today. For me it all started as early as when
I was a baby, because this is where I went through a lot of trial and error type situations. This
played a factor in my life because if I did something and I did not get what I expected what I
wanted out of it, I did not do it in the future. Now, not being able to remember a lot of what
happened until was about 3-4 years old; I do remember that I did drink hot milk once and with
the pain that comes after I never even thought of making that same mistake twice. This age,
when I started to remember events and keep memories from my life, was also my introduction to
one of the biggest sponsors in my life who are my Mom and my Dad.
Being a young boy there is not much you can do other than sleep, cry, and watch
television. Television played a big role in my effort of learning a language that was not my first.
Gujarati was my first language and English was my second, which made it hard for my parents to
teach me English because they were learning it with me. While watching interactive shows like
Dora, Sesame Street, and Thomas and Friends I learned phrases and short sentences by repeating

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after the character and everything I learned helped mold me in being comfortable communicating
with other people my age. Not only did these shows teach me how to speak languages they also
taught me how to act around others and how to be a nice and generous person. This includes
saying thank you or please. Everything I learned from watching these shows on television
helped me in my transition into Pre-School. I remember my parents telling me a story in 5th grade
about how the teacher called me the smartest of my whole Pre-school class. If I try to think of
how it would have been for me back then, the experience of just being in a school would have
been astonishing. Going to an English Pre-School was hard, I did not know how to speak a lot of
English and I could barely read or write. This as a result made me very quiet and gave me the
motivation to learn so I can be like the other kids. I also remember my parents showing me my
report card around elementary school and the comment said Apurva is always alone and is
always doing his own thing. This comment perfectly explained who I was for a long period of
my life, and this goes back to explain why I thought that I dont learn something new every day
because I was just alone not making friends, meeting new people etc.
Being this way, I was so focused on what I had to do and as a result I was fortunate
enough to start Elementary School early. Now, even though I was very excited that I had got this
opportunity, I was also very nervous which in turn made me dramatic when it came to the first
day of school. The morning when I was waiting for the bus, I had many thoughts run through my
head. I dont want to go to school. This starts 12 years of straight school, am I going to like
it? Even though I was quiet I was very smart when it came to things like this, I tried to stall
going to school by crying, or saying I think I am allergic to school etc. My parents were trying to
calm me down and tell me that I was going to love school and I was going to have so much fun.
So after I finally gave up trying I told myself that elementary school is going to be okay, I

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decided to cooperate with them. At school I learned a lot on the first day, such as I was going to
have to be more independent and do my homework or following the rules of the class. This is
where I got my first glimpse of how it was going to be when I was going to have to communicate
with many people and make new friends and interact with them. This whole experience was a
main factor in my growth of literacy because I have been in this school stage for about 14 years
of my life
After a short two years of Elementary school my parents decided to move to the USA
where the chances of getting a better education was better than Kenya. Before we moved I was
still the silent boy who always did his work and always was on the smarter side of that class, but
when I came over here it all changed. It was like a whole new world because the teaching styles
were different. For example, over here it was more of an interactive style of teaching while in
Kenya it was more of just a lecture with very minimal activities. Because of this change I wanted
to move back to Kenya because I was used to that style of teaching, but my parents told me to
give it some time and that everything was going to balance out. Throughout second grade I was
mostly playing catch up with my peers because the curriculum here was different and at the end I
was all caught up. This is because of my first sponsor in the USA which was my teacher Mrs.
Moore. She understood what was happening with the transition that I was going through and
tried to not make me feel like I was left behind. She did this by taking time out of her day and
sitting down with me after school as a one on one tutoring session. With the help of Mrs. Moore
my literacy expanded not only with the knowledge but also the experiences in USA.
A lot changed after I moved to the USA. Everything was close by, the school
environment, and the new types of friends I made. I was also introduced to the Temple here in
the USA. Back in Kenya, my parents went and I kind of just tagged along because I could not

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stay home alone. I never really saw the point of going because I never really tried to look into
why we went every Sunday. After coming to the USA and engaging in going to the Temple
weekly and attending weekly classes where we learn and memorize different parts of Hindu
Scriptures introduced me to the state-of-grace style of literacy. This was something new in my
life because I was never introduced to it, but it expanded me knowledge in a field that I was
never exposed to.
Being exposed to the Temple since I was nine years old has grown me as a person. I am
more open with people, I love talking to new people and love going to the Temple on a weekly
basis excited to learn about something new that I can hopefully try to incorporate in my life.
There have been any transitions in my life such as, learning to speak a new language, moving to
different types of schools, moving to a completely different country, but the biggest that I think is
the transition from high school to college. In all of the other transitions there has been a common
factor that will not be following me in my journey through college. I said before that my parents
are the biggest sponsors in my life, there have been many sayings, and things they have told me
that have stuck with me and impacted my life in a positive way such as, study hard. They have
not been lucky enough to go past an associates degree in college but they said that they do not
want me to not take the opportunity that is in front of me. In the about two weeks I have been in
college it has changed me substantially. I do not have my parents telling me when to eat and
reminding me to do my homework etc. College is the place I met new sponsors in a specific field
in the form of professors, which is a pathway to expand my literacy. In college I also made new
friends who are on the same boat I am on. Being in college two hours away from home is both
exciting and new, but it gives me a chance to take on more responsibilities and freedom that I
would not have if I was close to home.

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