Personal Narrative: My Understanding Of Literacy

My understanding of literacy was off to a rocky start. I was never a fan of reading and writing. Growing up, I would prefer listening to music and watching movies. In fact, I struggled to speak properly. A classroom at Mill Creek Elementary was specifically designed for those who were having a hard time speaking. They call it: Speech. At least, that is what my parents called it. I did not like being pulled out of class just to go to this one thing I could care less about.

"I do not want to go to Speech today," I whined to my parents. They were worried about me not receiving the help.

"Your test scores say you need the help, honey, we are just trying to help you out and this can benefit you," my dad explains.

Since I was an elementary

This influenced my imagery while reading books, which is one of the reasons of how literacy affected me. This was not an ordinary book you read. It is an adventure of following 6 kids who have wings; and are trying to escape a laboratory from being experimented on. The storyline had me hooked, and I could not resist the intensity. Were those kids going to get caught by the doctors? It was something not worth putting the book down.

I stopped in the middle of the 2nd book. My attention disappeared from the storyline. At that point, I lost interest into reading. On the other hand, writing was something I also struggled with. My short, brown haired, and video game t-shirts, Amanda, was into writing stories. We would always sit in a room that was full of food and it reeked like sweaty kids. In other words, known as the cafeteria. I had only read one story at the time, which was about her favorite video game, and it was decent. Although, I hardly remember what it was about.

"Write a story with me," she

It inspired me to write creatively and express myself through what I love.

Moving to Chelan was hard. Literacy was only an impact through school. My test grades still were not the best. I only read books that were required for an English class. Nothing seemed to motivate me to be excited about literacy. However, I started being a part of a small group through my church. Reading bible verses and applying them to real life situations helped me understand what some things truly meant. The bible verse, "Come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest," from the book of Matthew, chapter 11, verse 28, explains to go reach out to someone if you need help with anything.

Moving on, I got into movies that were made from books and they seemed to help me picture the book better. For example, in my junior Honor's English class, we watched the Great Gatsby and it provided specific imagery in the book, which helped me understand it better.

Mrs. Jenkins, my English teacher, was one of the reasons I started to read again and journal more often. Something she said had stayed into my mind and it turned around for