Becoming Literate

During my formative years, I remember my uncle helping me read Dr. Seuss books until I became wildly proficient at reading. Throughout Elementary school, I loved to read (I have a video from 2011 of me reading to my aunt!). My parents heavily encouraged my love of reading and would used to take me to Barnes and Noble whenever we would get the chance.  I remember my favorite book used to be 10 Apples Up On Top by Dr. Seuss. After we bought each book, I would read all of it within the car ride and would want to read more and more. My parents recall me being very proficient quickly and before first grade I knew how to spell a lot of words correctly. Compared to my brother, I barely struggled in reading and writing.

In school, we were also encouraged to read and had our own little book section in the classroom if anyone wanted to read after a test or if you were not doing anything. I remember I would always pick up a Goosebumps book and just keep reading them whenever I finished all of my assignments. From what I remember, during the fifth grade, we were tested on where we were reading level wise and I scored a twelfth grade reading level. 

Continuing with Elementary school, I always looked up to my aunt who would used to baby-sit me and would always harp on about how important education is and always encourage me academically. My aunt and her husband were definitely role models for me growing up--smart, educated, and they are pretty young too with successful careers. Still to this day, I kind of look up to them and I always go to them for advice on anything. 

Anyways, this love for reading persisted into my sixth and seventh grade years where I fell in love with the Percy Jackson book series with whom I shared an obsession with my close friends. I was placed in the honors program in seventh grade and I had no problem adjusting to the faster pace of things. Nearing towards my eighth grade year, my love of reading was starting to diminish. Luckily, I had an amazing English teacher who I was close with and she made assignments and lessons interesting. She sparked my interest in reading macabre poetry when we did a unit on Shakespeare and his writings. 

High school is when I started to struggle with my honors English classes as reading and writing seemed to burn me out. I loved when we used to do group projects or do slideshows on different topics since it was less taxing on my brain and I was able to be more creative with how the slides looked. Class just used to bore me and I would always doodle on my papers and get yelled at for it. It just seemed like my brain could no longer process what I was reading. I would have to constantly scan the page again and read a passage over and over until my brain understood what I was reading. Writing was no different when I had to write and analyze a piece. All of my papers were seemingly incoherent because I could not gather my thoughts in a cohesive manner unlike my peers who had no problem writing long and in depth essays. 

To this day, I still struggle with this. It frustrates me knowing I was way above my peers when I was younger and now I struggle to even be at level with them. I still struggle with understanding a passage and having to reread it over and over again, but my main issue is gathering my thoughts in any way that is easy to understand. Outside of school, I like to read the news on my phone and sometimes I'll journal about my day or if I have a bad day, I like to write about it.