Running head: Immersing Myself in Books 1

Immersing Myself in Books

Nataly Hernandez Montes

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Immersing Myself in Books 2

My only sibling is eight years old, almost ten years younger than me. I was an only child

for all those years and my first language is Spanish. Reading and writing is hard for a child, its

especially hard when they’re trying to master their first language while learning a second

language. I was being taught English, my second language, at Randleman High School, in

Randleman, North Carolina. I have never been in school anywhere besides Randleman, North

Carolina. I remember when I was younger that the teacher, Mrs. Holmes, in second grade said I

picked up the ability to read well, but I didn’t really know how to comprehend and read at the

same time. Eventually, I learned how to comprehend and read, but only because my mom pushed

me really hard. I remember in my earlier years that I would struggle with certain words, and I

didn’t really have a lot of help. My parents at that point were not super fluent with the English

language, so I didn’t get as much help as other kids in my class did. Many of them had parents

who did help them at home. For instance, my brother Emanuel has recently completed second

grade. He has received significantly more help than I did; simply because I am there to help him.

However, I do remember when I finally started getting into books and reading. I got into

books in fifth grade. My teacher, Mrs. Barger made us read the first book in the ​Chronicles of

Narnia,​ The Last Magician, and I fell in love with the series and by extension, reading. I

remember feeling like I was in Narnia. I could feel the bitter cold on my nose, the gentle brush of

the trees, the bright light from the lamp, and the weight of coats to push through and get to

Narnia. I started reading book after book, series after series like the Harry Potter series, Percy

Jackson and the Olympians, and The Hunger Games trilogy. Having to start a new series one

after the other waiting impatiently to know what would happen next. Despite the books having
Immersing Myself in Books 3

pages that I was not used to having I still very desperately read every book. A lot of my peers

usually made comments about the number of pages in the books. “Jeez. How many pages does

that book have?”

“Just two-hundred pages,” was my reply. Reading books was just about learning and

being a part of that universe. I kind of lost interest in reading the last couple of years only

recently reading again with the book, ​The Help​.

Although I had the difficulty of not really understanding what I was reading, I always

struggled with writing. I don’t think I have ever been a good writer. I don’t think writing papers

while also making it fluent and sound nice is easy. I find that I write as I think and have a bad

habit of not proofreading. However, I do think that having been such an avid reader when I was

younger has significantly impacted the way I write. In the sense that some of my vocabulary is

different, and sometimes I tend to spell words the European way like writing colour with a u and

theatre with the e after the r. While I was growing up I was reading Harry Potter and other

English literature like the ​Chronicles of Narnia,​ so I accidentally spell words wrong. I actually

didn’t realize this until recently when one of my friends who also spells certain words the

European way pointed it out. Having that conversation has helped me realize what has truly

influenced my writing.