Title

PARAGRAPH 1: INTRO
-Thomas Wolfe quotation
-Speak what we are a summation of
Every ounce of our being is made up of what we have done, what we are going to
do, and what we wish to do. As Thomas Wolfe once said, We are the sum of all the
moments of our lives. Our lives are compiled of and filled with moments both small and
big that are catalysts to our beliefs, thoughts, actions and feelings. I am the sum of what I
have done in the past, what I am doing now and what I plan to do. As human beings we
become a cornucopia of all of our experiences, good or bad.

PARAGRAPH 2: TIE INTO LITERACY

-Tie parts into literacy
A small part of this larger sum of who we are is determined by our literacy. And our
literacy is made up of small moments in and of itself. Literacy is not solely our ability to
read and write, as the common dictionary definition would observe, but it is also the
ability to see beyond and through. To understand, process and create new forms of
thinking. Our literacy is in some ways like our spirituality, it is molded by the people we
meet, the things that we learn and the grand occurrences of our life. The way that things
are perceived are different for everyone both in reading and writing as well as religion.
As my lifes parts continue to mould* themselves together like a jigsaw puzzle, I come to
realize that my spirituality has a large part in my

PARAGRAPH 3: PERSONAL STORY, GROWING UP IN CHURCH

-Story of growing up in church; first exposure to stories, books etc.
-Add spiel on storytelling (possibly another paragraph)
I grew up in a family that loved God. We were never the type to host functions, or
bring food for church picnics, we were the consistent type. The ones that showed up each
and every service, never meaning to disrupt the church, just simply be a part of it. Sunday
mornings at 9:00 in the morning, my mother, father and four siblings piled into our
stereotypical suburban mini van, fighting about my skirt riding up or my brothers
inability to brush his hair. I always enjoyed the times I spent in the church. Even at the
age of four years old, I knew that it was a place that could make me wholebecome a
part of me. I enjoyed humming along to the songs that were played and embracing a
culture that I did not quite understand yet. Every week that we would go, I continued to
pride myself in following along with verses in the Bible that my dad guided me to, slowly
tracing them with my pointer finger, as if I knew what word the pastor was on. I would
reach out for the hymn books stowed away in the wooden pews, grasping for something
to aid my boredom and peak my interest. As I grew older, and was reluctantly taken from
my parents side in the grown up service, I was placed in Sunday School. A snotridden, juice drinking, cracker snacking group of young children eager to learn of who
this Jesus character was. There is no saying I was not a part of what these children
embodied, but as others were looking to have the stories of the Bible read to them, I
wanted to read them myself. I wanted to hold the book in my hands and form these
stories through understanding words and pictures on a page. My stubborn nature shone
through week by week, and soon I won the battle against the young adults spending their

Sunday morning babysitting wild and hungry children.

PARAGRAPH 4: OTHER FORMS OF LITERATURE THAT AFFECTED ME

-Life of Pi
-Thirst for reading
Bible stories were the first to come into my life and they continued to affect the
books that I chose to read as I grew up.
Life of Pi was a book that I read in the third grade. Something far beyond my capacity of
reading, but nonetheless, it was everything I searched for; thick, small font and of course
an interesting cover despite the well known fact of not judging a book by its cover. It
challenged the ideas of religion, it spoke of spirituality and a character that turned to God
to find his way through a journey filled with metaphors that I was far from correctly
understanding.

PARAGRAPH 5:
It was these story books that cut into stone my love for reading, my want and
passion began with God. I felt the need to fulfill myself through reading not only for my
growing love for God but also

PARAGRAPH 6: HOW MY LITERACY HAS SHAPED ME

As I look back on this connection I made to God, and in turn with my literacy it
shaped the way that I see literature now. It caused me to delve further into reading texts
and seeing underlying messages. Reading the word of God questioned my beliefs,

questioned the decisions I made every day and created an atmosphere of wholeness,
realness in my life.

OUTRO: FINAL CONCLUSIONS

John Green says, We are greater than the sum of our parts. My literacy is not
only the love I have for reading (go on about previous paragraph topics) but it is also my
love for God, my connection to things deeper and more meaningful than myself. As we
search to find and dissect these parts that create us, we forget everything grander
whether potent* or not.