A Journey Eight Years in the Making

By: Alex Stevens

I was ready and agree to step into a new and separate plane of existence. Or at least thats what I told myself. Eight years ago I was joining something I found utterly fascinating, a world wherein my father and his friends existed every day away from the mundane humdrum of regular life. I begged and pleaded and finagled my way into allowing me a chance to try out this magical game that he was so adept at playing and finally he relented. That game was World of Warcraft. The problem was that I was woefully unprepared for the literary world in which I was about to step into. One wouldnt think that World of Warcraft would be a place for literacy when most people use text talk to speak on an everyday basis. Yet there are more similarities than one would imagine when the interactivity strangely mirrors our own. Imagine entering a room when you are ten years old filled with only people aged in their mid to late twenties or older. That child would be as to a deer in the headlights about to be run over. Unfortunately, this exact scenario played out for me. Coupled with this large disconnect from my fellow peer group was the fact that every request for me in this world was far beyond my vocabulary level of the day. In essence, I looked like a complete idiot on every level. The first remedy to these problems was to find some common allies. I resolved this by joining a Guild, Just as in the old times this was a group of people one could do heroic activities with so that one could manage the daunting task. It helped in the long run but it certainly wasnt an easy road. I was obnoxious, loud, couldnt spell for garbage and unable to listen for any major degree. Hi guys! Wanna do anything? No? Why not? I didnt do anytihng rong did I? Sad face A little annoying and grammatically incorrect isnt it? Thats how I was, young and inexperienced. Then the bombshell came by my parents since they had control over when I did anything on the computer.

If you want to stay in your Guild and interact with these people youll have to improve your writing and reading skills. Learn to shut up and listen rather then throw around your two cents at every chance you get, understand? I took it as an insult as most children would, insinuating that such a statement was held against my entire being when they were merely looking out for me and everyone elses enjoyment at the same time. This was when the second remedy took place; I took my time, the best of both worlds for solving my issue involved learning the back story of the universe I was in and reading or writing about it and took ever chance could to do so. I tried not to write as much as I should have so I didnt call out more attention to myself, but I read everything I could find. Id spend hours and hours of my time researching just to learn a little bit more about the best warriors to defend the land. I also cooled myself and listened to my superiors so people would like me better. I suppose it was all about image, but if one can make themselves look good in a strange environment and thrive from it then more power to them. I was allowed into the groups more and things seemed to improve on this great virtual frontier. These remedies allowed for be to better fit into my peer group in the game and allowed for me to interact without so much judgment beforehand. This allowed me to have options opened to me I hadnt had previously which led to my further growth and the meeting of one of my greatest influences on my person to date that will be described further in a moment, but first, we must get to that point in the journey. Sadly, as with most good things, everything must come to an end. The Guild I was in was unable to resolve certain issues and closed up shop in the waning hours of the expansion in which we played. I still wanted to play with other people and chose to join a guild my father had been a part of since before I could remember. (This was something my parents heavily agreed with, allowing them to watch my interactions with more scrutiny) This came with further challenges however, I had taken the message to heart about listening and shutting up so long as I could fit in. This carried over greatly into the next Guild, I didnt want to stand

out nor make a name for myself bigger than the one they already held for me just for being my Fathers son so I was more direct with what I did. Id work with people to accomplish goals and then go on my way with no one any the wiser, and I was happy that way. Yet when I talked I still sounded uncouth, unable to pronounce the oddest of words correctly and being called out on it constantly to better myself. (though I didnt understand that at the time) I had the proper items to continue my raids but outside of private conversations to people I tried to not speak much and fit in, but that still wasnt getting all the knowledge I needed. I continued to research more mechanics, more terminology and even began running older content with an ally I had made named Argiment. I met him through my Fathers Guild and we did many things together. Naturally, as we corresponded more he chose to be my mentor and from there my knowledge grew exponentially. Though he is not around me anymore, he is still one of the greatest factors on my literacy path to date. Argiment was an older man, he and I shared an interest in goals and enjoyed easier content so long as we got to see it and had a fun time. If there was one thing I wish I could go back and do it would be to give him the proper respect he deserved when I treated him as a peer instead of a mentor. He would guide me into which way to go, how to know who I should bring when and where and showed me life skills I reading cues I had never experienced before then. The one thing you never think of with reading and writing is how it applies to regular people as well. We would go into the darkest depths of this virtual realm and he would tell me how to pronounce their names. (AhnQiraj, yeah, thats a name) Being that he was once a teacher it certainly made sense I would look up to him as one, I just wish I had done more so when it actually mattered. I started to read cues (The way people responded to my written word and their interactions with me) on an everyday basis and continued my studies on a personal basis and suddenly became more vocal. I sounded more eloquent and people listened so everything went well. This was when I first recognized why my literacy had been so important. My literacy allowed for me to blend into a greater subculture, it allowed for me to respond to people with cognitive responses and think about how they would react as people and just allowed for me to enjoy an

activity I constantly did with a vigor I had never felt before. I had found my niche and began to love everything I had because of it. I continued into my teenage years and began blogging after an assignment in English requested me to do so. It started off as a response to virtues from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight but spiraled into something much bigger than that. I really wanted to catch my writing up to the levels of reading I had acquired from the past few years. Naturally, I wrote about the virtual world I knew the most about and it worked out quite well for me. The fantasy themes and games have always been intricately connected, and especially so in the speech sense much to ones surprise. Just as in Arthurian Tales of Old, one may greet someone in World of Warcraft with a Hail, or an Aye for the word yes. Some may realize this and wish to placate it, while others may simply not realize it and continue on their way, immersed as they are. It makes the real world context of the genre seem more realistic even if it isnt and makes one except it as a valid source of literature of others who may find it as a childs mentality. Sadly, around this time Argiment was removed from the Guild from various circumstances others had with him, I was on his side but it seemed not all were. Context is often times a very cruel thing. We were no longer able to run various things but I continued to try and use his lessons in my everyday life. I began teaching others just as he had taught me and kept them informed, the cycle continuing so that others could become literate in terminologies they may not have known themselves. I began spreading out my bases and focused more on school life and my friends, bringing the lessons Id learned with me back into the real world. Band became a major focal point of my life and I began to use notes to further my knowledge of the written word. Spending days on end with one hundred people certainly caused drama but I was able to mediate with my garnered skill between parties. Because of this, people began looking to me for guidance which I became very adept at giving out. With this guidance I was allowed the freedom to speak articulately and create a name for myself I hadnt really had large scale on a

normal level up until this point. It was an eye-opening experience when I realized I could make the best of both worlds and use them to my advantage on both fronts. By allowing for my opinions to be heard and knowing that I have good ideas (my own hubris aside) I got interested in politics and wanting to change the world, that is why I am now hoping to minor in Political Science whilst majoring in Psychology wherein all people would have a voice and it would be for the greater good. English cant be ignored either being that I had it every year just as most others in the state, essays became the standard and I began writing and reading at a feverish pace, this was due to the fact that I could choose to do whether to do so or not and I was given a freedom and privilege not normally had before. I started a journal for posteritys sake and now write in it every day so that I have a constant basis of thought in which to go by, over time this too has shown improvement from simple basic sentences to whole paragraphs of description and will continue to improve as I move into the future. My literary path became quite in depth as one can see during this time and I became quite content with the progress I had made thus far. This brought me to the end of my High School days and much success over time. It was a long and daunting process but being thrust into a new environment greatly influences ones literacy and writing on all levels. It shows growth on a massive almost unheard of scale if one does not take the time to imagine it, going from barely understandable sentences to fill out life long goals. These things are a way to fit in on all levels, face to face or otherwise and should be seen as such. We need to see it as such. By recognizing literacys importance in relation to fitting in with others we can put a higher emphasis on it in schools and in the world beyond basic words on a social media site. I learned that literacy goes beyond just reading and writing but is what makes a world a relatable place to live. Just as Malcolm X needed to learn literacy in order for his greater message to be listened to at all, I needed it in much the same way, without it, people wouldve isolated and possibly ridiculed me for nigh on a decade and my life could have turned out far differently that what it did with the guidance of my peers and mentors.

Literacy helps you relate, it helped me relate and changed my life forever. We need to realize this as a society and make words, sentences, and simple syntax a much higher importance than they currently are. Just as Kofi Annan said, Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope. It is a tool for daily life in modern society. It is a bulwark against poverty, and a building block of development, an essential complement to investments in roads, dams, clinics and factories. Literacy is a platform for democratization, and a vehicle for the promotion of cultural and national identity. Especially for girls and women, it is an agent of family health and nutrition. For everyone, everywhere, literacy is, along with education in general, a basic human right.... Literacy is, finally, the road to human progress and the means through which every man, woman and child can realize his or her full potential.