Amoruso 1

Paul Amoruso

Professor

ENC1101 0M06

Paper 1 Final Draft

25th October, 2017

Tickling Literacy Taste Buds

A memoir is equivalent to confessions. Confessions are equivalent to recollections. A

record of experiences shape our personality from top to bottom, left to right. Whether writing an

essay, article, diary, poetry, newsletter, etc. one bountiful substance sits beneath it all. Literacy

stems from one common root. The root of a personal tree. A tree which shapes our minds. The

minds in which are creative to decipher and pen such novelties. In such cases, a single thought

hatches a generation of thoughts which give rise to any written discourse.

Communication. Verbalization. Monologue. Three common terms which grip onto the

reality of our cognitive cleverness. A profound illustration is within the textbook of

Writing About Writing. In which, Donald M. Murray publishes, All Writing Is Autobiography

In the framing introduction to the article, Downs and Wardle write, He is really arguing for the

threshold concept that all our past literacy experiences inform our present literacy experiences

how we write, what language we use, even (he suggests in the end) how we read (224). Murray

then steps in and writes, As I look back, suspect that no matter how I tuned the lyre, I played the

same tune. All my writing and yours is autobiographical. In essence, it does not

fundamentally mean all autobiographical writing is a willy-nilly life story of our past. But rather,
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our writing no matter how it is cut and diced, it stems from the same inwardness. As individuals,

we evolve to better ourselves. To explore this possibility, I want to share a poem Ive written.

FOOTSTEPS

I wondered how long it would take me to write this poem.

As I struggle to put words onto this paper.
If I thought of how I would portray myself
Without a forte in writing.
Here I am, nearly 19 years old
Residing in Altamonte Springs
With my parents and two sisters.
An Italian guy, enjoying lunch
Waiting to start my future

You cannot be certain, in whom you are,

Because we constantly evolve
While its not hard to describe myself,
knowing what I want in life comes easy to me,
With a heart for travel
and a goal to learn every day,
I try to be loved by all.
With a passion for all history
and an enjoyment for computer science
My hopes strive strong for my future career.
Wishing to follow my dads footsteps.
However, with a motive to retire early
With Italy being my dream destination,
And a love for all Italian music and food
Starting and ending my day,
with a cup of cappuccino.
Picturing myself driving through Rome into my
hometown of Sicily
Coming home to my future family.
Cause no matter what they say,
Life is beautiful that way.
I hoped this class would turn out great,
and so, it has.

Poetry a rhythmic literary work, with metrical composition. Simple yet it expels

ingenuity. As a December child, I am months away from nineteen years old when I wrote it.

The future envisions are luminous. I have come to conclude, the times Ive spent in Italy, are the
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moments Id repeat again. Walking Rome, Florence, Capri, Milan, Venice, Assisi, etc. are all

places where Id prefer to visit with a future family of my own. The autobiographical elements

shine through as the memories and passions were and are real. On a similar token, Dr. Phil,

author, psychologist and host of a television show, says, The best predictor of future behavior is

past behavior. Please, however, bear a few things in mind. When writing, it is not common for

one to sit in a chair and eliminate all memories before penning down thoughts. It is however,

whether conscious or unconscious, one lets their mind conjure possible checkpoints as they

conceptualize and write. Autobiographical poetry in the lyrical formation forms a song of

feelings and expressions on ideas and thoughts that derived from the writer the writer alone.

Obtaining grit had been a hassle from the start of my childhood. I appeared wimpy and

was called tall Paul during schooling. In my mind, I always considered myself an underdog

compared to my schoolmates. Each stumbling block of my childhood has inspired me to seek

through all capabilities in life. Every individual carries a story in life, however I am convinced

with dedication and self-confidence, we are all able to carry out our weakness into a form of

strength. Similarly, through the book The Einstein Factor, Like so many geniuses, Paul

Scheele, the inventor of Photo Reading, was a poor student in school. Reading proved to be an

especially slow and cumbersome task for him (187), it then later states, Speed-reading courses

helped Scheele raise his speed from one hundred-seventy to five-thousand words per minute at

seventy percent comprehension (188). On all accounts, no matter the weakness I had (writing

and speed reading), each achievement opened me to a hope of a successful college opportunity

and future endeavors. Therefore, no matter what one may write, an autobiographical stance

whether through the eyes of Murray or others, there will only be one authentic Paul writing (me,

myself and I).

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Far too often, the simplest of things are taken for granted. Walking down a field of

uncertainty, I found myself hesitant to communicate through the granddaddy of literature: the

poem I included above. Having been raised bilingual (Italian and English), I had a slight

difficulty when I would arrive home from school, and for homework we were told to have our

parents sit with us while we read a school chosen short story twenty minutes a night. To me it

was torture. I was flying blind. But when theres a yin, theres a yang; when my struggles

became evident, my parents quickly sought after books I found enjoyable and relatable to myself.

It was Little Black, A Pony by Walter Farley. Looking back in hindsight, without that first true

relatable book, my developing passion for literature would be below average. Far too often, the

simplest of things are taken for granted. Farley couldnt have written a snippet of my life any

clearer, it stated, Please dont try to do everything Big Red does. He is a big horse. You are only

a little pony. You could get hurt (27). Quite simply, I was told to take it slow. I was told many

times, take it slow when you read or you dont need to go as fast as your classmates. As a

young child, I didnt make much of it. I figured, well hey, Ill let you read for me. It was when

sixth grade hit me, I realized my literacy skills must have been a gem hidden somewhere other

than my mind. It took one positively encouraging English teacher named Mrs. Brownrigg to

guide me into a silver lining of refinement; she was not a typical high school teacher, but rather

she cared truly about the story that her students were writing and how they could improve on

communicating it through literacy skills, all while teaching in a very positive and calm

demeanor.

Throughout my childhood, I have used one particular motto to get me through the harder

moments. My mom once stated, If You Never Ask, Then Youll Never Know. I figured there is
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nothing to lose in a situation in which you ask, but rather a greater chance of missing an

opportunity smack in front of me. A break in the clouds came through the guidance of Mrs.

Riether, who has been a guidance counselor at Lake Brantley High School. I felt welcomed as if

I was a child of her own, it was easy to walk into her office and discuss questions whether school

related or not. I have known Mrs. Riether for five years now, and I have mentioned to her, as I

am attending UCF, I will never meet nor run into another Mrs. Riether. She carried tremendous

faith in her dedication and ability to help other students to come to her with an open-door policy.

I was consistently challenged when she gave me opportunities for scholarships. I was hesitant to

attempt those essays without guarantee of the outcome. By just knowing she had confidence in

me, I ended my senior year winning three small but valuable scholarships, which went directly to

purchasing books and college supplies.

In Latin, theres an apt phrase for such fallacy in logic: Post hoc, ergo propter hoc. In

English, After this, therefore because of this. And in plain speak: Event B follows Event A, so

B must be the direct result of A (Lucky Years). A road map for the journey cannot be found in

the depths of ones closet, rather it must be reasonably formulated through experiences and

literacy knowledge. As funny as it may seem, a simple motto enlightened my path of

communication. One day, I watched We Bought A Zoo and this one sentence still sticks in my

head: All you need is twenty seconds of insane courage, and I promise you, something great

will come of it. I thought to myself, how can I live better tomorrow based on what Im doing

today? There was no precautionary move I could have taken. The lessons I have learned from

elementary to college has given me the freedom to explore and sharpen my literacy imagination.

I began with no proficiency nor desire to read or write, although, without all the above
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gravitational forces, I would not be in this seat writing this essay. Reality hit, as I am the eldest

child of the family, I walk with a burden. A burden of raising the expectation of accomplishing

my fullest potential. All my past, present and future footsteps will and have led me to tickling my

literacy taste buds.

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Works Cited

Agus, David. The Lucky Years: How to Thrive in the Brave New World of Health.
Illustrations, 2017.

Donald M. Murray. Writing about Writing. All Writing Is Autobiographical

pp. 223 234

Wenger, Win, and Richard Poe. The Einstein Factor. The Einstein Factor,

Prima, 2002, pp. 187188.

We Bought a Zoo. 20th Century Fox, 2011.

Farley, Walter. Little Black, A Pony. 2000.