Langston Taresha Langston Raymond English 1103 September 16, 2013 Literacy Narrative Many of my memories from early

years in my life have faded from me but one that will never leave me is of my mother and grandmother reading with me. My mom would take me to the public library as often as she could for me to pick out books to read. I had always loved walking up and down the aisles in search of just the right book to temporarily take home. My mother or my grandmother would coach me through words and sounds I was not familiar with. This gave me a slight advantage when I went to preschool. Reading and writing never became an obstacle for me. I found pleasure in being able to take letters and transform them into words and from there into sentences. As I moved forward in school, my reading and writing comprehension was developing even more. It was in the second grade when I won a writing award for my tales of a crescent back bear. Out of every second grade student, mine was chosen as the best and was even illustrated by a professional artist. I credit this moment as the catalyst to me beginning to write my own stories. Many of my early writings took on fantasy ideas. My mind would always love to dream up new worlds and mystic beings. It provided an escape of sorts; an escape that Ive still been known to use to this day. Fourth grade also gave me an experience that boosted my writing confidence and that was having my writing prompt chosen as one of the best. I dont remember what the actual prompt was about but I do remember what I had written about; a nightmare of mine. I was commended on my use of detail and scenery words. As I grew up I found myself in more and more challenging courses; something that I could possibly credit to me preschool days. Its been shown that students who attend preschool later grow up to take more rigorous classes and show signs of mentally maturing faster. Even after I graduate college its shown that preschool attendees have 60% more

Langston likelihood to earn more than 20k a year in their career than the 40% who didnt attend. (Barnett Ph.D.) All of my high school English classes were honors or AP and since that was so I was held to a higher expectation that others. Like with the graduation project everyone in my school had to complete. I, along with my classmates, was expected to write almost twice as much on our chosen topics than the students of regular classes. My topic was Sickle Cell, Thalasessemia, and the Role of Blood Testing and my paper had reached the nine page mark by the time I was done with it. This significantly improved my research methods and my ability to write a research paper o a good standard. It was also during this time in my junior year when I became a published author. It had been a regular day at my library near the high school. I was browsing the shelves for something to read but I couldnt find anything interesting so I settled for the magazine rack. I picked up an oversized magazine with a pretty picture of tree on the cover. I guess this will do were the words that popped into my head at that time. I sat down, not sure what was contained within these pages and not sure what to expect upon opening. To my amusement, it had collections of short stories, articles, poems, artwork and photography. All made by teenagers like me. I was astounded that something like this even existed and why I hadnt found it earlier. I was engrossed in every page marveling at the work of those around the country and even the world. At this time, I too, was writing poetry. It was only free verse and haikus but poetry nonetheless. That very night I signed into the website and made myself an account. I would post a new poem as often as I could. One day I had finished a poem I had entitled Sitting on Air and was so eager to publish it online that I did so via my iPod. After typing it all out and hitting enter I waited for it to be approved to publish on the site. About a few days later it was but to my horror it had been formatted as a block paragraph instead of the lines I had intended. In my haste I had forgotten to do this and I wanted to cry but it was too late. So I, bitterly, left it as is and carried on. Weeks passed and my poem had gone to the back of my mind until I got an email. It was from the website and upon clicking it, in that month of November of 2011; I found out that Sitting on Air had been chosen to be published in

Langston the print version of the magazine. I immediately ran to my mom, jumping up and down, yelling I got published! Mom I got published! I was in a state of happiness and shock because of all the poems I had written and uploaded, they had chosen that one. The very poem where I had messed up upon uploading, they had chosen. Even when my free copy of Novembers magazine had come in the mail along with a pen and sticky notes that read from the desk of a published author I still couldnt believe it. Even when I walked back into my library and picked up that November issue and found my poem right there staring at me, I still couldnt believe it. I had messed up but someone thought it was perfect the way it was. Being published in TeenInk had made me realize that everyone messes up but that doesnt mean its the end and itll taint your life forever. Surprises can arise from those mistakes. Not only that, but TeenInk reminded me that there are people who believe and want to foster the arts within teenagers. If it wasnt for that belief I probably wouldnt have pursued poetry as passionately as I did. As my writing was developing, my choices in reading material were too. I was no longer reading Clifford the Big Red Dog but venturing on to more challenging works. There is one author who I have recently started reading that has flipped my world upside down: Haruki Murakami. I had heard of him but never got around to reading his works until my sister bought me three of his novels for a graduation present. They were After Dark, 1Q84, and Kafka on the Shore. I delved into After Dark first and was mesmerized by how he wrote. Soon after finishing that, I moved onto 1Q84. That novel shook me to the core of my being and I was left speechless by how his writing style could do that to me. It was nothing I had experienced before, it was like a thin film had covered me but I didnt know what that film was. Throughout the novel there is talk of two moons and at the very end Aomame thinks to herself I still dont know what sort of world were in now, Im sure this is where I will stay. ... Come what may, this is where we will remain, in this world with one moon. The three of us- Tengo, and me, and the little one. (Murakami 1156-1156) Having gone through the story essentially with the characters, I found myself looking out the window for two moons wondering what kind of world I was in.

Langston As time has moved forward, so has the technology. These changes in technology have changed how I wrote for quite some time. When instant messaging first came around, especially during the ages of MySpace, I would type in shorthand frequently. Sometimes my shorthand would find its way on to homework assignments, but never would it show up on essays or work for any English class. I dont know why this was so. Eventually, over time, I would stop writing in shorthand altogether. This change was brought about by how other people were communicating on social websites. All of a sudden it was no longer cool to type in shorthand and purposefully rewrite the words using numbers. Correct grammar usage and complete sentences was the new cool and during my impressionable ages, being cool was something I genuinely cared about. Even to this day, I rarely type in shorthand and if I do its because Im using it in a satirical way. As time moved on, technology has advanced and its given me access to so many things that someone like my grandmother didnt have. Today I use the internet for homework assignments whereas this wasnt an option for her. This new wave of advancements has also opened the door to the works of independent fiction writers. People from all over, me included, now have a bigger platform for their stories they write. Another aspect of technology that has shaped my literacy is the invention of things like Nooks and Kindles. I remember when my mom got a Kindle. Well, I should say when she won it. I had just gotten home from school and checked the mail. There was a package in there from the Ellen DeGeneres show. I walked up to my mom puzzled Theres a letter from Ellen? My mom looked at me in disbelief. Apparently earlier that week my mom had entered in the weekly contests Ellen held and she had won a prize package. In it was a brand new Kindle, a new GPS system and a hotel voucher for anywhere in the United States for three days and two nights. My family, being the readers we all are, would always be waiting for our turn to use the Kindle. I even read my summer reading of One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest on it for free instead of buying the book. Though I must admit I have gotten a few remarks on my usage of a Kindle or Nook over a book from purists with arguments of Why not read an actual book and Books are way better than those things. I never

Langston understood what the problem was; I was reading the same stories as them just in a different format. In the end did it even matter? When I read, my mind wonders to the world contained in the words Im reading and all consciousness of what Im holding leaves my mind. Not to mention if they were true purists, their stories wouldnt be written in books, but told orally from the elder of their group. Now here I am today in an accelerated college level English course further developing my writing styles. My science and sociology classes will also benefit me in the learning of new formats of writing that I had never once used during high school. Im evening starting to develop literacy all over again but this time not in English but in Japanese. By taking on the challenge of learning a new language with a whole new writing system and grammar patterns I can enhance knowledge of English structure and vocabulary (Curtain & Dahlberg, 2004).Its a never ending experience I can never wither from, only grow.