My Literacy Journey Essay Example

I've always enjoyed learning new skills, such as reading and writing since I was a child. Even though I had a rough start with learning English, as an immigrant, we all know that life gets tough from here. Let's travel back in time to see what I'm referring to.

My memories of my literacy journey aren’t too fond for me from what I can recall. However, I remember immigrating to the U.S. knowing only Spanish. My mother taught my brother and I English since she knew we were going to need it growing up. We started off with reading children’s books then learning the alphabet even before school started, and by the age of 4 I had learned all of the alphabet and even learned how to write my first two names. Once I entered kindergarten, my knowledge of letters and numbers were advanced! I had straight A’s and perfect scores! The only problem now were, speaking the words; I sounded pretty funny speaking English as a Mexican but I did my best and by the age of five, I was exactly where I needed to be. I had to write a letter to Santa for Christmas and I had to write a page regarding my wishlist. My teacher gave it to my father and he and my mother bought me all the things I wished for as the years passed. If I remember correctly, I had to write an essay about which subject I loved and which subject I really disliked. In 2nd and 3rd grade the one subject I loved the most was mathematics and the one I hated was reading. My teacher disliked and forced me to read more books after that. Furthermore, to brighten up my knowledge, I’d say R.L. Stine was someone I’d look up to for inspiration as his books have influenced my writing. I love the way his stories are fiction and get my imagination on a roll. Growing up, I never really liked writing. As an introverted person, I think much more than I speak to be fairly honest. A person can expect me to stay quiet and see me writing for as much as my brain wishes to proceed. By fourth grade, I had become tired of writing essays about history or historical figures in general. If I had any interest in them, I'd have to investigate and write about them, but I don't. However, I enjoy writing about topics or people that I am familiar with, and I am confident that I could fill several pages with them. Like the “Favorite” questions and the “Why” questions are my specialty. When it came to sharing my writing, I always kept it to myself. I’d be in school writing essays about stories I would read or just daily question journals that I’m practically forced to respond to. Going into 5th and 6th grade I wasn’t much of a social media person. I’d use my mom’s phone to text friends and family about gatherings or birthday parties. I remember getting my first phone around this time, I’d be using Snapchat. My mother and father didn’t like to give my brother and I access to many platforms of social media since according to them, I quote: “We pay for your phones”, hence, the reason why we don’t have too much freedom on our hands.

In middle school, my greatest challenge in writing was my knowledge of my vocabulary. I'm not a big fan of the way I use words, but I do try my best to express myself in my writing. This brings me to my miraculous talent of expressing my writing through my thoughts. I like how everything I think about magically appears on a computer or piece of paper. It’s truly a gift from God! I remember that my love for reading strengthened when I was hooked on R.L. Stine’s Fear Street series. Each story is about different characters that all go to “Shadyside High'' and experience gruesome murders. Usually, the main characters either live near, live in, or know someone that lives on ‘Fear Street’. Pretty amazing stuff. I mostly read for entertainment. I remember joining the book club from Stell Middle School and spending some very amazing memories there. However, I did not enjoy the pleasure of reading president’s books. Those books are still boring and uneventful to this day, I despise everything about history. When the time came to read out loud, I was truly terrified about reading out loud to my classmates. I was always nervous, I believe I cried, and it was not pleasant. I’d call myself a bookwork for my love of books and reading. Since I used to stay up from 10 P.M. to 1 A.M. just to read books. Even when I got ready for bed or school, I’d be so glued to my book because it was so addicting and that much of a good book. Another series of books or saga that I will never ever forget was the “Hush-hush” books from Becca Fitzpatrick. She wrote the following books in order as the series progresses: Hush hush, Crescendo, Silence, and Finale.  They were all romance, fiction, drama, and mystery, throughout the story enemies meet, and well romance awakens for one human and one archangel. She enamored me with her choice of words, so much that if I could, I would ask her for advice on writing a book of my own. 

Now for my high school years, reading novels that I have picked is one of my hobbies. and writing in my journal about daily activities or my daily life. I like remembering things that I wrote several years ago. This is why every night or weekend, I wrote about all the interesting things that happened in my life. Whether they’re funny, sad, scary, or just plain weird. If I make a new friend, I'll write about it. If I failed or passed an exam, I'll write about it. Or if I lost a family member, I'll write about it. Basically just a blog of my daily life. Now for the fun part, reading books! Genres such as romance, horror, drama, mystery, legends just fascinate my pleasure for reading. Any spiciness and sadness plus cliche scenes always bring smiles and frowns to my face. My emotions go crazy as the book progresses and I get hooked to them! I could stay up to odd hours of the night just read books. However, I would get in trouble for risking my sleep schedule just for my admiration for learning the knowledge of vocabulary and dramatic stories that might never even have a true ending. Since the Covid-19 pandemic happened, I haven’t really been able to go to the library to read any new books that have piqued my interests.  I’ve been stuck reading books virtually while going to school face-to-face just to keep my grades up and graduate. It’s been beneficial to actually socialize and meet new people nowadays, even if I'm struggling to get more credits and pass all my classes. For me, reading was important because it helped me grow mentally, emotionally, and psychologically. Every book gave me an opportunity to learn new things and explore new ideas. Reading books increased my knowledge and made me so much smarter. But every good book opens up new dimensions of thoughts for the reader. When you read a book, you somehow try to connect the events, emotions, experiences, and characters in the books with yourself. This not only keeps you engrossed in the book but also makes you realize how you would feel and react to those situations that have not yet occurred in your life. It helps you broaden your dimensions of likes and dislikes. So, with every page that you read, you may have a chance to discover a new part of yourself! For the knowledge of my writing skills, the right side of the brain is the more creative side, while the left side is the more analytical and logical side. You need both sides to write anything, but especially creative writing. The right brain handles all the visions of what you want on the page, and the left side helps you put it down in a way that makes sense. I’ve had books inside me all my life. I think everyone has a book inside, whether they realize it or not. It’s not necessarily a book of fiction. People want to share their stories. And everyone has a story to tell. Writing is the only way to get that story into the hands of people who care. Writing your thoughts is important for dealing with anxiety, depression, and other mental health disorders. Depending on your personality, telling people your goals could either help or hurt. But writing them down—for everyone—is an important step in actually achieving your goals. Everyone, including me, begins with terrible writing. This reason is especially important because you will not improve your writing unless you practice it. If you accept that your earliest written words (and a lot of them in-between) will “suck”, then you’re miles ahead of the person who won’t pick up a pen because they’re afraid of how bad their writing is.