Jeremy Ayotte

ENC 2135

Professor Whitney Gilchrist

22 January 2017

Literacy Narrative

Naples, Florida, where wealthy retirees flock to for the breath taking white sandy

beaches, top rated golf courses, multi-million dollar communities, and an array of mouthwatering

restaurants. Im very fortunate to say that Naples is the place I grew up in and spent the last

sixteen years of my life. I was born on a cold, snowy day in Hartford, Connecticut to my parents

Kevin and Carole. When I was two years old my sister, Hannah, was born, also in Connecticut.

My grandparents, having visited south Florida many times for vacation, decided to nestle down

and build a house in the affluent town of Naples after my grandpa retired to get away from the

freezing cold of the North East. My mother was always close with her parents so when she

heard the news that they were moving to Florida, she decided to follow. We moved right after

my sister was born in the year 2000. At first, we lived in an apartment until my parents found a

just a couple of months after we moved and thats the house they still live in today.

Growing up only five minutes away from my grandparents, John and Jeanne, my sister

and I spent a great amount of time with them. Since they were both avid readers, they got us into

reading at a very young age. The first book that I actually remember reading was Green Eggs

and Ham by Dr. Seuss. Dr. Seuss books were my favorite at the time. I fell in love with the

words and phrases he used as well as all of the colorful pictures and wacky characters he

incorporated into his short stories. I actually ended up doing a project on him in elementary

school because I enjoyed him so much. As I got older, I got into more complex stories and books
although I cant remember exactly which ones. Thanks to my parents and grandparents, they

always kept my sister and I doing stuff that kept us engaged rather than just watching TV. When

we would read or ever be at my grandparents house, classical music would always be playing

because they swore that stimulated our brains.

I was the oldest and the first to start school. In elementary school, I had an aptitude for

reading and writing which led to them being my favorite subjects. I remember in Kindergarten

my teacher, Mrs. Schwalbee, would have us do exercises where we would sit around a table and

she would hold flash cards with different words on them. We would have to say what the word

was and I always aced it, because I had done a lot of reading as a kid. As I progressed through

grades I started having to take mandated state and county tests like Collier Writes and FCAT.

Most kids probably dreaded having to take them but I on the other hand really didnt mind, I

thought of it as a challenge. I scored in the highest percentile which lead me to start taking

honors classes once I got to middle school. There I discovered that math wasnt a strong suit of

mine, I was average in science, but was always above average in reading and writing.

In sixth grade, my favorite teach was Mrs. Hess who taught English. She kept the class

actively engaged taking turns reading books out loud, acting out certain parts of stories, and

making projects. Middle school still had us doing writing tests but did away with FCAT. We

were required to have a book at all times and read in our free time otherwise we would get

something called a track card signing which we could get in trouble for. I was still entertained

by reading at the time and didnt mind it. The books I favored most were real life novels,

autobiographies, non-fiction, but never really had a taste for fiction. The main reason English

was always my most-favored subject was because of the teachers I had. They made the class

interesting and fun to learn about. Eighth grade I had the best English teacher ever, and shes
still my favorite to this day. Mrs. Santacrose added humor to our class discussions but really

cared about us as individuals which meant the most to me. I always couldnt wait to go to her

class because I knew I was going to have a good time. Her class was when I wrote one of my

first essays that Im most proud of. The assignment was to pick a song that had meaning to us

and write a paper on why it was special. I chose to write about the song Take a Back Road by

Rodney Atkins. This song reminded me about the time my family flew up to Maine to visit my

grandparents, Pat and Patsy, on my dads side. It was the first time I ever left Florida since we

had moved here and got to experience what up North was like and actually remember it. This

trip allowed me to meet all of my dads side of the family, uncles, aunts, and cousins, whom Ive

never met.