My Literacy Journey

Throughout my academic career, I have read many books of all genres to get a feel of the literary world and to enhance my reading skills. Ever since I was a young girl, I recall always loving to read any book that I came across and spending my free time doing so. As I got older, my interest slightly decreased but I still enjoy reading fine pieces of literature. I have always preferred to read over write because there’s so much more to learn from other people’s experiences and getting to relate to it as I get deeper into a book. The main challenges I have faced in my literacy journey is being able to express my full thoughts when I write. Everytime I would have to write an essay, I would not know how and where to start so it would seem like

Contrary to that thought, I was mistaken. In my lipscomb experience class we had to read sci fi books which was far different from what I usually read. This book was called Ringworld by Larry Niven. My negative thoughts about reading came back to because half the time I did not understand the vocabulary used in the book and the various amount of characters and their personalities. The positive thing about coming across this book was achieving a preference for what I did like to read. Books that educate me upon matters that are relative to reality such as fiction and informative books are my favorite. Throughout school, most books I have read did not fit in this category so I was forced to read books I normally would avoid. I think that my unique experience with books only bettered me and helped me become more open minded to new ideas. With literacy comes culture. The different backgrounds of authors and their ethnicities all help to interpret where they came from and what inspired them to write a book. Reading a passage written from someone living in florence will be different than someone that wrote something living in America. For instance, Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse enlightened me because the author interpreted Buddhist beliefs and indian culture to show a man’s spiritual journey on his own. I can relate to characters like these who go on to find themselves independently

It is more poem based and revolves around the author’s good and bad experiences and she puts those into beautiful words to be relatable to the reader. This book is called Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur. I admired her work so much because I can understand where she is coming from and if I ever start writing from my own personal experiences, she will be my inspiration for doing so. As a result of all my readings inside and outside of school, I got a taste of all genres and different authors. Although I have preferences for books, nothing went wasted and I have a great literary library retained in my head. Although sometimes I still struggle when reading and writing to interpret and express myself I believe there is always room for improvement and that I have come a far way from the very beginning of time. Now that I am in college, I have a lot to learn and still have not seen much yet, and I definitely see myself becoming as literate as ever 4 years