The Epitome Of My Literacy

          Literacy wasn't the best part of my childhood. The fact that English wasn't my first language and that I was thrust into an environment that was extremely different from what I had become accustomed to didn't help matters either. I recall being told I was crying at the sight of my new surroundings begging my mom to return to Haiti. This for me wasn’t the ideal place I wanted to live in although my parents thought otherwise and being five years old at the time, I didn’t have much of a say in anything. I at the time hadn’t realized that it was a huge opportunity for me to receive the proper education that I wouldn’t have otherwise if I hadn’t come here. 

           The first literacy memories I can recall are from elementary school when I was reading aloud to the instructor to assess my reading skills. I used to stutter or pause after each word to pronounce it and my writing was poor since I misspelled most words, and my grammar was not much better as well. It frustrated me immensely because It felt like couldn’t read the book properly and people couldn’t understand what I wanted to express through writing. I wasn't the best reader, and I didn't particularly enjoy writing. Every moment I’d pick up a book I got bored easily and discarded it as soon as I had started reading. I would often look up to my classmates who had high reading and writing levels because I knew I wanted to be the best in my class. My teacher had requested to communicate with my parents to encourage me to read more outside of class. At first, I wasn’t too elated about reading more frequently. Being my age I was confused as to why my teacher and my mom had wanted me to read more. As a result, one day my mother took me to the library. This was the first time I ever had gone to the library to read an actual book and it was the cataclysmic point In my life at which I had started to love reading. 

By that point, I became enamored with reading. I had started with one or two books reluctantly but I grew to appreciate the books I chose and was eager to know what would happen next. I'd beg my mother to take me to the library as soon as I finished whatever books I'd gotten that day. After returning home from the library, I would often sit in a small corner of the couch and read for hours, concentrating on whatever I was reading. 

           Looking back on my literacy, I believe I've progressed from disliking reading and writing to loving it and being able to apply what I've learned from reading to my writing. On occasion, I would even explain to my mother and brother what I had learned from specific books and they would continue to listen interestingly. In my spare time, I read online literature such as WEBTOONS, webcomics, novels, and educational books on my phone. This has now become a habit of mine without fail.