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Michael Duquesnel

Professor Lindsey Gevry

College Writing

27 August 2019

Literacy Narrative

The literacy journey that I have been on throughout my life is one of ups and downs.

Whenever I think of literacy, a part of me tenses up a little bit. This is due to the plethora of

events that have happened over my lifetime. Although I started off really enjoying reading and

writing, a couple of negative experiences in my early teens really turned me off of these

disciplines. This stigma has stuck with me this whole time, but I try to move beyond it. The

beginning of my literary journey begins in my elementary school days, where reading and

writing time was quite enjoyable to me.

I can think back to the classroom in which reading became a joy in my own life. It was

Mr. Tabor’s fourth-grade class and we were reading the book, Old Yeller. Never before had I

ever been so invested in a novel than I had with the adventures of a boy and his dog. If my

memory serves me correctly, I remember that we were reading the book as a class, but I was so

invested that I started to read ahead. Little did I know, spoiler alert, that the dog dies in the end.

In my mind, I see my head leaned against the desk, tears streaming down my face as my best

friend, Carson, taps me on the shoulder to make sure that I was ok. This novel changed my

opinion of reading. Never before had I ever been so invested in a novel, and from there, I had

really loved reading books for the emotions that they tried to convey. Naturally, this flowed over

into my view of writing as well. My imagination ran wild with what I could write about and it

never seemed to have an end.

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Then the teenage angst days started to roll in. When the hormones started to pump, I

became less and less enthusiastic about reading books. Being told to read a novel in which I had

no interest in even opening really upset preteen me. The final straw was in the eighth grade when

Mrs. Lowman, my English teacher, who I was not very fond of, was giving out the last book of

the year. At this point in the school year, I am looking to take it as easy as possible. I was always

placed in the hardest book group and this time; I was looking for a change. Approaching Mrs.

Lowman, I asked her if I could be placed in the group that was reading The Outsiders, the middle

difficulty group, instead of the highest difficulty group, who would be reading Gulliver’s

Travels. In the end, it turned out that my request was in vain; I was placed in the group I had

tried to avoid being placed in. Now I was forced to read to a novel in which I had absolutely no

interest in reading. Part of me believes that she placed me in this group because she knew I was

capable of understanding the novel, but that did not stop me from hating her decision even more.

This also started me down a road of falling asleep when I have been bored with reading, which

would hold consequences down the road that would affect my love of reading and writing.

Although this seems incredibly simple and not that big of a deal, it was enough of a push

in the wrong direction to scare me away from reading and writing for a while. This mindset is

one that I took into the first couple of years of high school. I was always disappointed with the

choices of books that I had to read and papers that I had to write in class. Deep down, I enjoyed

reading books like Of Mice and Men and To Kill a Mockingbird, books which plots and

characters intrigued me, but I refused to let my enjoyment show through my facade of teen angst.

This facade was not taken down until junior year when I was in for a true literary surprise.

At the end of my sophomore year, I decided to enroll in the International Baccalaureate

program. I had heard from my peers that the teachers in the program were all amazing, so I
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decided to give it a shot. This entailed taking IB English Literature, a class in which I had no real

interest in taking but figured I could survive through it. The teacher, Mr. Stetson, was one that I

had previously and I had enjoyed his class, so what’s the worst that could happen? When he

brought out the first book of the semester, A Thousand Splendid Suns, a book about people living

in Pakistan during the war, I had no idea what to expect. What I was not aware of was how much

I would enjoy this book. It caught my undivided attention as I read page after page to reach the

conclusion of the book, even reading ahead at some points because of my enjoyment. My love

for literature had come back!

This wasn’t the only book that helped in bringing my love of literature back to the

foreground. Seeing the future through Aldous Huxley’s eyes as he explores the utopia of Brave

New World recharged my imagination. Exploring the Japanese countryside from the alternating

perspectives of Kafka and Nakata in Kafka on the Shore had me clamoring to solve their

mysteries. Running from the police with Said in The Thief and the Dogs kept me on the edge of

my seat, as I turned the page in suspense! The variety and scale of each novel acted as a spark to

the flame of my imagination. Each book that we read came with a paper where I had the

opportunity to discuss major themes from the book and think deeper about the meaning behind

the text. I only have Mr. Stetson to thank for this boost of life in literature. His selection of

novels was the exact thing I needed to fall in love with reading and writing all over again.

Without my IB English literature class, I would not be in love with literature as I am today.

Through the roller coaster that is my literary journey, I have gone through more ups and

downs than I wish I did. Although this may seem like the end, my journey still has a long way to

go. As of right now, I have a pretty good outlook on reading and writing and do not dread it as

much as I used to. Although I would love to say that the cold shiver that reading gave me has
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gone completely away, I would be lying. Deep down, I am still skeptical of it all, but that’s the

thing about a journey, it does not always need to have a definitive ending, and that’s alright.