Allie Turnbull Brenda Yoakum ENG105 24 January 2023 “Sometimes the “Tough Teen” Is Quietly Writing Stories” In “Sometimes the “Tough Teen” Is Quietly Writing Stories,” Matt De La Peña reveals how his relationship with reading changed his life and later his fathers. There is a social stereotype of who could enjoy reading books. Only soft, sensitive, and intelligent people would enjoy reading a book. At Least this is what De La Peña had thought growing up. His family, friends, and culture also had the same opinion of reading. Later in his life this opinion was going to change not just in him but also influence the people around him. Reading books had never been a persistent thing in De La Peña’s life. Books were considered “sensitive” to De …show more content…
My whole life I struggled to understand what made reading enjoyable to people. I struggled to focus on the ideas of books. It wasn't until about a year ago I was given a book to borrow from a friend. I saw this friend as a mentor in my life and she felt I needed to read this book. I put off reading the book as long as possible but when I finally started progressing through the book my opinion had been altered. I felt that I could relate to the author. At the time I read the book I had been struggling with many things in my life. The fact that I could simply just relate to the author was beyond impactful. The author went through the parable of the lost son from Luke chapter fifteen and compared it to what she had been through. As I read through De La Peña’s essay I realized how impactful changing our personal life habits can be on the people around us. My favorite aspect of the essay was the change of heart that De La Peña had made his father consider making a difference in himself too. This essay was not only something I could relate to but it was eye opening to me in a sense that I need to think more about how I express myself around people, even my family. It was eye opening to see the difference it can make to just be yourself around people. Even though De La Peña knew that his family would probably judge him for starting to read books he still did it because he enjoyed