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Tara Mekosh Caruso Engl 1101 20 August 2013 Literacy Memoir Literacy is something I consider a necessity in todays world. If you truly think about it, you will find that it affects our everyday lives. Literacy skills take place in the smallest of gestures such as reading directions on your way to the beach, or in much grander affairs such as essays you must complete for a college degree, but being literate doesnt refer to just reading and writing; hobbies can be counted as literacy also. I formed my opinion on this subject due to real life experiences. I was never one to excel in the writing field, and it was that reason alone that I learned the significance of writing and reading proficiency. It all started in kindergarten; I was at most five years old and just beginning my journey of mastering the English language. We started with the basics, learning the alphabet, and then progressed to writing those giant illegible letters parents learn to love. At my age I was an average student, but that all changed when formal writing made its way into the picture. In grade two I was assigned daily writing homework and my parents could tell I was struggling. By third grade I was enrolled in morning tutoring sessions at my elementary school for writing and test anxiety, but their attempts were to no avail. A year later I had to take the North Carolina Writing Test, and I failed. It was the first of many times to come. As I transitioned to middle school, I received straight As for my first year. I had only assumed that

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my writing and all other academic skills had improved, but you know what they say about assuming. Needless to say, another writing test had snuck up on me and I failed once again. My writing abilities had not changed when I entered high school. My freshman English class was based solely on grammar; this seemed to be the most helpful of any of my previous literary classes. My sophomore year I found myself once again in front of the state writing test. This time I had passed, but only due to my grammar skills. For this miracle, I have only to thank my ninth grade English teacher. My junior year of high school I decided to challenge myself. I took Advanced Placement United States History, also known as, the hardest AP class in my school. Not only was the class difficult, but the teacher was a double major in History and in English. I was doomed. I spent many afternoons with her trying to get my writing up to par, and after a whole year of her help I was able to write an essay in under thirty minutes for the AP exam. Conversely, I still feel that my writing needs much improvement. Despite my lack of writing abilities, I loved to read. I spent many hours reading in my room just for entertainment purposes. I found that I gravitated towards realistic fiction and also fantasy books. I enjoyed reading this material so much that I even began writing my own stories. However they were poorly written, and in need of a great deal of rearranging. I always went back to revise and reread my previous works, but it always seemed as if too much damage had been done to fix the mess I had created. The one thing I would find helpful to make writing easier for me is detailed feedback. In previous classes I never received any feedback, just a mere number. The number never told me anything or what to change, but it discouraged me from writing for fun and for academic purposes.

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Earlier I mentioned that literacy doesnt have to just be reading and writing, and this is true for me. In what I lacked in the traditional literacies, I made up for with my passion for figure skating. My grandmother was like my baby sitter, and every summer I would stay with her until my mom came home from work. My grandma was a figure skater. Of course she wanted me to follow in her footsteps, so she dragged me along to all her group skating sessions. Soon the dragging became willingness, because I had grown to love to skate. Before long I was taking classes myself and spending over eight hours at the rink. As I aged I began to take my hobby more seriously. I started taking lessons from Coach Candy, who was the exact opposite of candy. Mrs. Candy was a strict women, but she pushed me to become a better skater. Under Coach Candy I won my first competition, and it was the proudest moment of my life. Unfortunately today I no longer figure skate, but I still consider skating my greatest literacy ability. My literacy history is like a game of darts. I know where the target is and where to aim, but always seem to miss the mark. My hopes for this class is that it will help me become a more confident writer, so that I wont dread writing every essay that I am assigned. This class is beyond intimidating and I expect this semester to be challenging, but I am excited to focus on my weakness and maybe turn it into my strength. I know that I am a hopeless case in the field of writing, but with an immense amount of effort maybe I can change my history.