Canale 1 Danny Canale Professor Raymond UWRT 1103 - E02 23 September 2015 My Journey of Literacy Writing has never really been a strong suit of mine. I was always a math and scienex geared person. It has only been the last few years that | have learned to embrace writing. My literary narrative starts when I was just three years old. As far back as I can remember, my mother was the one that had always been there to teaching, me how to read and write, My father helped when he wasn't traveling for work, but my mother had the biggest impact, It started with simple things like, how to write the alphabet and how to write my numbers, My mom was left handed, and told me that it was difficult for me to Tearn how to preform these task especially because I was right hand dominate, and after a while, { showed some progression in these areas, and moved in to mare complicated things such as writing sentences, aelding punctuation and so forth.) Unlike Malcolm X who had to teach himself how to reac! in a jail cell during his bed time, | always remember my mother reading me a story before bed. My favorite book was The Giving Tree. [always stood out from the others for some reason, and I can't quite explain why. Ie had a special meaning that | could sort of connect wit ind | believe that is why Ilam the petson | am today, As far as impact on my literary side I feel it gave me the ability to write deseripti and with reason. Though the book itsel' has simple sentences, as a child who used his imagination quite often, it felt like a critically ac imed novel.Canale 2 Reading and writing were a skills that I fell behind in from an early age, like Maleolm X did, however math and science were two of my stronger subjects. This was a result of a problem that I had carried with me sinee birth. Up until the Sth gracke when I visited the dacter, | was a very slow reader and my writing and handwriting was atrocious. This was all duc to an eye issue Thad. | was born with condition called Strabismus. which is defined as "a disorder in which both eyes do nat line up in the same di jon, so they donot look at the same object al the same time.” It is commonly referred to as “crossed eyes.4\ Strabismus”) 4 ‘This played a huge factor in my study habits and ability to read and write from an extremely young age. Not only did | read multiple grade levels behind my current grade, | also could not finish work on time, I remember my trip to the doctor’s office clear as day. | sat ther . listening to every word that rolled out oF the doctor's mouth. "This right here,” pointing to.a sheet of paper with two ferent colored slopping li 's down it “is your eye teaming, The: ¢ lines should be exact copies of cach other, but notice how th fis almost completely opposite of the right?" I shook my head, "This shows me that your left eye is not doing what the right eye is doing, Your right eye is, doing what it is supposed to do.” 1 sat there, half way understanding what was being said. “I's going to take you about two years to be completely fix the issues you are havi 5." referring to the condition | had, strabismus, “As of right now you are behind multiple grade levels compared to your actual grade level in comprehension." AIL knew was that there was going to be a lat of work, so I began.Canale 3 Alter soaking up what the doctor had fo say, I prepared myself to start taking the steps to help me correct my problem. This included going to vision therapy once a week, completing daily exercises to strengthen my cyes, and wearing glasses that had corrective lenses. || 4 | started out slow, but I kept working at completing my daily exercises, trying to push myself to new personal bests. [started to notice my grades rapidly improving, my studies becoming easier, and most importantly my reading became faster. With my reading speed came iy ability to write ata higher level an | had ever done so before. Before long, | was above my grade level for reading speed and | had corrected all of my condition quicker than what was predicted, School had become easier ane L was able to keep up in the classroom. This was a miracle and a blessing in disguise. The timing of these events could not have been more perfect, especially since | was about to enter middle school, sditime for me for multiple reasons. ‘The biggest however was. Middle school was aw change, not only of myself physically, but also my thought process, amount and difficulty of school work, and not to mention, more responsibilities. Of course with more response abilitcs J i : meant more privileges like getting a cellphone, Fl never Forget il, my fist phone, the Samsung, Glide, It was a blue touch sereen phone with a slide out keyboard, This was the first time | started texting, and | really enjoyed it.I was shor, simple, and to the point. The problem, however, was that it was too simple. It quickly started to show that it had an impact on my \writing, and for quite some ime during my middle school years. I started to get comments on my papers such as, "You are missing proper punctuation" or "This is not the correct spelling of the word." I was struggling really bad. According to the Huff Post, “Kids between the ages of 12Canale 4 yu) * and 17 text a median of 60 times.a day,” This just proves how much our generation has embraced this technology, and with its simplicity, we fall short of our full potential. like myself. As time pushed on, my ve" fr texting faded. I still use it today, however, [try to be as proper as possible, in the hopes of reforming my formal writing. | still stip up on somethings, tor example, I will use "your" instead of "you're" when I text, This mostly happens because when | send a text message, | usuallly do it in a quick manner, and since the keyboards on today's mobile devices are not full keyboards, it takes longer to add the proper punctuation. |) 4 A Thebeesi led iS)pl high school was a little strange for me. It like middle school was with a lot of change, however, it was more of a mental/environmental change than a physical ‘one. For instance | dove into country music, becoming a huge fan. Before hand di se —F > prefer it, mainly because my parents ‘wee not from the south like Twas. They were truc northemers, growing up on the outskirts of Philadelphia, *We never really were exposed to country music, we were more ol the classic 80's hits you hear when we tum on the ‘80's hits* station.|" my mom had told me when | was inquiring about our music tastes. “Like Lily from Sue Monk Kidd's The Secrete Li of Bees, | was born and raised in the south, more specifically, just south of Charlotte, North Carolina, Ry the time I was in high school, | started to form who I was, thus embracing country music and having an idea of what I ‘wanted to pursue in fife, My writing, however, didn't prove to hold any significance. ay’ Towards the end of my high school career was when [ realy started to embrace my writing. It was when I started to apply for colleges, but not just any college. Unlike most people who choose to attend a well known civilian college, | wanted to de something out of the ‘ordinary, something that very few people have the opportunity to do. I wanted to apply to theCanale 5 military academies, more specifically the United States Air Force Academy and the United States ‘Coast Guard Academy. According to U.S, News’, Education section, both of these schools have [ag | ( 100 ) ess than a 20% acceptance rate, In order to apply, | had to wfite multiple essays. “Great. Tons of ‘writing. Just what I need." | thought to my self when I first looked at the application. Shortly after taking a step back and recvaluating why | was doing this detailed application in the first place, 1 got to work. I noticed something, about my writing that [ never had before. | was writing with a passion, a purpose, and overall attention to detail. It was like a lightbulb had gone off My new found passion paid off. | received two nominations, one senatorial nomination and one congressional nomination, both to the US Air Force Academy. Though | did not end up with an appointment to cither academy, I received an Air Force ROVE scholarship, and a whole slew of skills for writing essays. Over all, my ying jouey has been no gasy Feat, Fhave had many ups and downs, bat continue to grow everyday, not only by my actions, but also by my surroundings. I hope to continue fo embrace literacy like Thave learned to over the years, and pass on my story.Canale 6 Works Chied {17 Kidd, Suc Monk. The Secret Life of Bees. New York: Viking, 2002. Print, a Malcolm X “Learning to Read.” smecd.net. Web. 7 Aug. 2014. | amakow, Jessica. "Teen Texting: New Report Shows They Send 60 Texts A Day.” The Huffington Post. TheHulTingtonPost.com, nd, Web. 23 Sept. 2015, Aira mus” MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia." U.S National Library of Medicine, U.S. National Library of Medicine, n.d, MedlinePlus.cam Web. 01 Sept, 2015 Sr 100 — Lowest Acceptance Rates." Jape 100 Lowest dcceptance Rates. Nip... uusnews.com Web, 23 Sept 2015 Jeon