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Shiylee Williams

Professor Rogers

Writing 1010

10 September 2018

My Life of Literacy

Reading, writing, poetry, why? This was my thought every time I sat in my English classes

growing up. I was never interested in reading. There wasn’t a book that stood out to me or made me

want to keep reading. I tried mystery, horror, drama, and even comedy and didn’t have any interest.

English and learning about literacy was just something I had to get through. I found myself reading the

words, but not taking in what the story was about. I found ways to get past having to read, including

looking up book summaries or looking at cliffnotes to write required essays. One example is a book I

read in ninth grade called The Odyssey by Homer. A particular line was “Sleep, delicious, and profound,

the very counterfeit of death.” This line and many others in the book were confusing and was hard to

write about when it came to the essay. Not only did this book make me feel lost but made me feel shy

about sharing my thoughts when I couldn’t even understand it. Basically, up until high school it was

hard, but I still managed to do it. Starting high school at Academy for Math, Engineering and Science is

when that all began to change.

When I started ninth grade, I remember a few weeks in, we had to read a book called Whirligig

by Paul Fleischman. Now, at that time, it did not look interesting at all and I had no interest in reading it,

but it was required for the class. Coming home that day, I discovered that my younger brother, Roman,

was struggling to read and couldn’t figure out how to pronounce his words. Roman has Autism. I knew

he had a hard time participating in class and communicating with his fellow classmates. I felt bad, and I

wanted to help him even though I wasn’t that interested in reading myself. I sat down with him every

night and helped him read through his class book until he got use to it. On some nights, I even started

reading the book I had for English. It was hard, but I actually really liked it! I felt like reading one page
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took hours and I kept having to re-read sentences due to me daydreaming. I continued to help my

brother read and pronounce his words, and at that point I realized that it was important for him to read

and speak out the words so that his vocabulary would improve. For myself, I couldn’t find that reason to

read other than to pass the class. I continued to read without having any thoughts or ideas about it.

Most the books I read growing up were really good books, I just didn’t know it then. Some nights I would

read my book and Roman would read his. It got to a point where we both were getting better at reading

and seeing him get better made me want to get better too.

I also learned a lot from my dad, which is a big reason I’ve gotten into writing. My dad has a pile

of notebooks that he has written stories and poems in and he would always read them to my family.

One of his poems even got published in a book! He has always taught me that I need to always have an

open mind and be creative with what I write. He would always tell me that I could write about anything I

wanted but I always felt too shy and scared of judgement. So, I started getting into writing about some

of the things I like in and outside of school. I love my brother more than anything! When we weren’t

reading, we would be playing with his toy cars or making silly videos on his tablet, so I decided to write a

story about my everyday life with him. I wrote about hanging out with him when we went to the

McDonalds playland or when we would play with water balloons on hot summer days. I talked about the

days he ate Cheetos all day and how he sprayed our dogs with the water hose. I enjoyed writing the

paper, so I decided to write a few more about different topics but I also had that feeling that it took too

much time. I didn’t like sitting on my bed listening to the clock tick as I wrote random thoughts on a

piece of paper. I wanted a faster, yet fun way to write; that’s when I started writing poetry. I felt like it

was a good idea to try out and I even took a creative writing class to help me figure out which poem

writing fit my style.

I wrote my first poem about how shy I was and the feelings I felt inside. I wrote it for my English

class but wasn’t too happy when I was asked to share it out loud with the class. My favorite line would
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have to be “Shyness is tested, my heart is beating. Too quiet they say, get involved they say. Too much

info, my brain overheating, in the shadows of life is where I stay.” I love this line because I feel like It

really tells how shy I can be and how it affects me. I have a folder filled with different poems I would

write in my free time and looking back at them now it makes me want to write even more. In tenth

grade, I wrote poems based on the book Macbeth by Shakespeare that I read in class. I would have to

say that they were my favorite poems to write because it was six separate poems based on the six main

characters in the book. I was so shy to share them with the class, and it really held me back. I wanted

them to hear what I wrote but I was scared that I would get judged. I remember standing in front of the

classroom, shaking a little as everyone stared as I read my poems. When I finished, I quickly sat down as

people clapped like they did during every presentation. What I didn’t expect was what happened after

class. My teacher complimented my poems, along with multiple classmates, asking how long it took and

how I wrote them so well. I was overwhelmed with happiness that I made the choice to share my poems

more often. I loved how I was able to write them based on the book I read. When reading, I got so deep

into the story that I felt like I was a part of it; I was in the shoes of some of the characters and that made

me want to keep reading so I would know what happens. I took several notes while reading and even

wrote down some of my favorite parts. I had a lot of improvement with literacy and I wanted to

continue to grow and get better. I started exploring my book options, so that I could figure out what

other books would strike my interest.

I struggled with finding books that were just as interesting as Macbeth, but after a few days of

looking I decided to give The Maze Runner series by James Dashner a try. I loved it so much that I read

all four books twice! I was even more excited when I found out they were making movies based on

them. Of course, the books were better, but I enjoyed both. I wrote summaries based on what I read for

book reports instead of looking at cliffnotes. The book made me really feel like I was apart of the story

and I was always wondering who, what, where, how and why the whole time I was reading. After the
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Maze Runner, I had a hard time once again finding new books to read, so for the moment, I stuck with

the books we got assigned to read in tenth and eleventh grade. I remember all the way back in sixth

grade I read a book called The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. I couldn’t remember too much about it,

but I found it on my shelf a while back and decided to read it over the summer and it was amazing! It’s a

murder mystery book that keeps you guessing, and it kept me really entertained. I want to try to start

reading more mystery books because I love to solve things like a detective would. I’m always solving

things at home, like riddles, murder mystery story games online, and even short story guessing games.

Even if I don’t get the solution correct, I still love to try and figure out what had happened and what lead

up to it.

Over these years, my view on literacy has really changed. I can’t even imagine what the world

would be like if we didn’t have books or even the ability to write. Who would imagine that this change of

mind would start with teaching my brother to read. In all reality, he is the one who taught me to love to

read and write. Reading and writing is really a fundamental skill in life and has helped me express myself

better. Imagining the story when I read has helped me become more creative with my writing. I now

prefer to communicate through poetry and storytelling. At my age now, I realize that literacy has helped

me have a whole new world to go to and escape from the real world.