Literacy Narrative Blogpost

My mom graduated from Stanford University with a degree in creative writing. She was 43 years old and had been a grandmother for less than a year. My mother's gift for writing is not genetic.

My parents divorced when I was in sixth grade, long before I needed to write anything serious, and we went to live with my dad. He quickly remarried and we moved from Roanoke, VA to Denver, CO. My mother and her expertise were over 1500 miles away. And to make a very long story short, we had limited contact with her. This was before the days of email so getting advice on schoolwork was almost impossible.

I took college-bound, honors classes in high school but it has been over 20 years since I have been required to write, and the idea of it terrifies me. I don't remember learning different formats or even hearing about thesis statements. MLA? APA? What does that mean? It might as well be a foreign language as far as I'm concerned.

The only experience that I remember with writing a research paper was in eighth grade. It involved hours in the library combing through card catalogs and encyclopedias. Carrying my trapper keeper full of 3x5 cards home and then back to school again and making sure I avoided plagiarizing by rewording the information that came from all of my resources. Actually converting all of those note cards to words on a paper seemed like a jigsaw puzzle that was impossible for me to complete. I never felt like a successful writer.

I was required to read all of the classics, Jane Eyre, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Good Earth, The Grapes of Wrath, Great Expectations, and Huck Fin to name a few. I’m not sure if I ever finished any of them by the deadline and started to tell myself that I hated to read. During my senior year we were given an assignment to do a book report on a book of our choice. I chose the book “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger. I read the beginning of the book and then relied on the Cliff’s notes to tell the rest of the story. The book report required a written report and an oral presentation. I faked it through the presentation and when I got the report back from my teacher I read her comments at the top of the paper. It said, “Amie, did you read this book?” Holden Caulfield has haunted me ever since.

It has been as an adult that I have finally realized that I love to read. I am not a fast reader but I savor a good book and actually feel a sense of sadness when it ends. I decided to give all of those high school classics a second chance and have fallen in love with the Joad Family, Scout Finch, and Wang Lund and O-lan.

Since beginning this English 1010 class, I have found myself recognizing the questions in articles and even in the way talk radio is presented. I listen more closely to messages presented and make observations. I have been able to read different stories about the same situation and see the angel of vision in each.

I am a runner. I didn’t begin running until I was 24 and at first it was very hard and I didn’t really like it. Four miles felt like a long run. I ran my first 10K at 25 and was terrified. I am now 42 (almost) and have run 10 marathons. Running has become easier, something I have a talent for. It has taken years of hard work and dedication. My success didn’t come overnight. I am hoping to have a similar experience with writing. I hope that hard work and dedication will make me a better writer.