Literacy Narrative

As a kid, books were definitely a bigger part of my life than they are now. My mom would read

me classic children's books before bed such as “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle and

would give me challenges as simple as sounding out a word to as difficult as reading a whole

sentence out loud. These simple exercises had greatly improved my literacy by the time I was in

elementary school. Once reaching elementary school, my interest in reading increased and I

began to pick up books out of interest and not because I had to. Books like Junie B. Jones

became my go to books during silent reading at school and sometimes even in my free time at

home. However, this interest soon dwindled as I reached middle school and into high school

where reading became less of a hobby and more of something I did only when it was assigned.

My disinterest in literature became more prevalent once I reached the college level.

In elementary through middle school and part of high school is where most of my assigned

readings are rooted from. In elementary school I remembered having reading logs where we

would have to read for at least 30 minutes per day. These reading logs continued throughout

middle school as well but the reading time was then increased to an hour or sometimes even two

hours a day. This is where I came to the realization that I was reading less for enjoyment and

more because it was assigned. I have a vivid memory of my freshman year of high school when

we were assigned to read a whole book called Animal Farm by Gorge Orwell. I had decided that

I was not going to read the book and just look up the Spark Notes online. I quickly realized that

this was a bad idea after I had seen that I did not make the grade I wanted on my test. From then

on I have always read my assigned readings. Ultimately if it weren't for that incident in high
school I would not have come to the realization of just how important those assigned readings

were.

Looking back on my senior year of high school I was enrolled in an expository writing class at

the local community college, that ultimately was where I got my first dose of real writing. I had

to write a total of about 4 papers that all built off of each other. Before this class I had never had

to write a real paper or even knew what a writing center was. Little did I know that the writing

center was going to be the biggest benefit I would have in my writing career. Although the

writing center was an important tool, my love for literature never grew. My disinterest in

literature became even more prevalent once I reached the college level.

My first semester of college is when I realized how hard literature can be. It became prevalent

while in my philosophy class. While in this class we had many philosophical readings from well

renowned authors and influential people such as Dr. Martin Luther King , Aristotle, Platos, etc. I

found myself getting lost in some of the readings. It's as if my mind would wander off as soon as

I read something that didn't make sense to me. This made it hard for me to join in on discussions

about the readings. I knew that I could just ask the teacher for better understanding but being

online made it hard for me to contact my professor and be able to say what I wanted to ask in an

email. Plus I have always had that fear of being wrong. We then for our final and midterm had to

write a paper on the readings that we were assigned. Thankfully we were allowed to have

partners on this paper, so I was able to combine my thoughts about the readings with someone

else and we ended up getting an A on both of our assignments. While this class was very

challenging in itself it had its benefits. It helped me to realize that my way of learning and
retaining information is more visual. For example, when I read a textbook or an expert from a

book I’m less likely to retain that information enough to be able to commit it to memory.

Whereas if I were to watch a video of having a hands-on experience with the material, I am more

likely to commit my experience to memory. Hence because I am a nursing major, a majority of

learning in the healthcare field is hands-on and/or visual.

Although I did not enjoy my philosophy class, it did help me to improve my writing skills and to

think more out of the box. I truly knew what the phrase “think like a philosopher” ment after that

class. These new writing skills I acquired can help me in assignments like scientific essays in my

future career, or nursing applications to various nursing schools. Plus science is a complex theory

that involves a lot of out-of-the-box thinking.

In conclusion, although I did take some challenging classes that made me think of out the box

and write in a way I never thought I could, they have benefited me in the long run in many

different ways such as helping me come the realization that I am more of a scientific learner who

thrives more in hands-on experiences such as the clinical setting where you get to have hands-on

experiences with patients, and in the college atmosphere I thrive in lab classes where I have

hands on experiences with what I’m learning. But if it were not for my mom reading to me at a

young age, my elementary and middle school reading logs, challenging high school and college

classes, and the writing center my literacy skills would not have been where they are today. The

great thing about literature is that although we don’t realize it we use it in our everyday lives

every time we talk or read an article on our phones. I may have not liked it at times in my

learning career but I know without a doubt that I will benefit from it for the rest of my career.