Literary Past

Growing up, I always struggled with reading but for some reason, I was always decent at writing. I always thought about writing as a social construct or medium for me to explain myself through. Whenever I would write, I would do it similarly to how I would talk but more cleaned up. Writing also always helped me shape my thoughts, being able to see the words on the paper made me realize what was right and what was wrong. Writing allowed me to escape the reality that we were living in for a short time and say the things that I wanted to say or even experience. When I write, it could be a creative story, a real experience, a poem, or even a song. All of these will directly relate to the emotions that I am feeling within a certain moment. Expressing my feelings through writing has always been beneficial to mental health as it allows me to ‘speak’ to an audience that does not respond instantaneously.

Reading to me was always very confusing because I saw words on the page and was actively saying them but never comprehending them. Once I connected the dots (at a young age) that reading was just exploring someone else writing I started to fall in love with the idea. Reading lets you escape into someone else mind and ideas that you most likely would have never thought about. When I start reading a book, I think about how someone wrote this book from almost nothing but their thoughts (if it is fiction), and I become fascinated with all of the routes that they can escape into.

Although my passion for literacy did not come about until my senior year of high school, this was about the same time when I decided that I wanted to be an elementary teacher. I want to show kids how reading and more broadly, how literacy can help them in life. While I was going through grammar school, I never felt the connection to books because it was “only for the smart kids”, this stems from teachers only focusing on the kids who were reading above their grade level. I am so excited to be an Elementary Teacher and hopefully make a positive impact on many students’ lives; I believe I have a great attitude to be a successful teacher for my entire life.