Tell Me About One Literacy Event By: Javier Negrete Jr The best thing about living in a Mexican family

in America is the privilege of witnessing two worlds and perspectives. Ive been fascinated by how others understand and why they are so different. In my case, Spanish holds a rhythmic and passionate expression with in depth meaning. English is the language of relaxation and has a more professional tone. My literacy event didnt happen all at once. In fact, it was a progression of events that came together in time for my entrance to adult hood in the forms of art, television, and English class. I have always loved to doodle and make sketches of things that would sprout in my mind. Often, my mother comments, to the rest of the elder family members, about how I would always prefer to mold aluminum foil into toys rather than playing with toys themselves. All I can remember about those aluminum toys was that I found a way to make my dreams and imagination into reality by shaping the things I saw in my mind into the moldable metal. Reflecting on my childhood, I see that the arts are bridges and forms of communicating what is felt inside a soul that cannot be expressed in words. Bliss was found upon discovering that poetry was just as fun as making the aluminum foil toys. This all started by making connections from television shows and popular movies. Television was the teacher that taught me to make comparisons with what was fantasy and what is real. Having been taught these disciplines, I started to write poetry in the eleventh grade, something I always thought was dorky, during the long and monotone lectures of my English teacher, Mr. Stewart. This was the first time I felt like a child since I molded my last

aluminum foil toys. It was an enormous rush of expression from topics like individualism, relationships, and family ties using metaphors of nature and animals. This is the progress of my literacy event. It is a progress that does not follow a classic story line. This progress is part of my story, one that was destined to be unique and odd.