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Matt Zotti
Nancy Roche
Writing 1010-018
11 December 2014
Reading and Writing is Stoopid
Growing up, schoolwork has always been a chore. Anything related to english,
reading, or any other subject for that matter, is something that I viewed as merely busy
work and often never entertained the idea of learning for the sole pursuit of knowledge.
When I began my semester here at the U, I still had the same mentality regarding my
views about writing and reading for enjoyment, until I met several people who introduced me and suggested the idea of exercising my interests and philosophies of life
through written literacies. While I felt inclined to deny their purposal, it had never occurred to me that I never liked reading and writing because all I ever bothered to look
into was what was assigned for school. While I have always been a very opinionated
person when it comes to topics such as morals, psychology, and philosophies, I always
associated the idea of reading and writing, even for such topics that I have such a
strong passion for, with a negative connotation. Once my friends lent me several books
of which they felt I would enjoy, I took my previous opinions about reading and writing
for fun with a grain of salt, and gave it a shot.
One of the books a friend of mine lent to me was called The Science of Evil. As
I glanced over the summary on the back of the back of the book, I was fascinated by the
authors hypothesis about the theories of what causes humans to commit brutal atrocities such as the holocaust, genocide in Africa, and other horrid events in histories past. I

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immediately started reading, and found that the more pages I read, the more I wanted to
know. For the first time in what seemed like an eternity, I found pleasure in reading and
experienced a foreign feeling of quenching for knowledge in what most would consider
school subjects. As I continued on to love reading the books that suited my interests, I
became increasingly more open-minded to try new things, and It wasnt too long until I
grew a love for free-writing and poetry. The concept of writing I was most attracted to
was the freedom to talk about anything that was on mind, all while using my words with
elegance, something that I thought I wasnt capable of. I finally had an outlet to soothe
my nonstop thoughts through writing what was on my mind and releasing all of the builtup energy within me, and it was a delight to see how I progressed with this skill overtime. I also found that through writing, I am able to grow as a person by re-reading my
poems and realizing my self for who I am, which is undoubtedly an enlightening experience. With any hobby, I find that the more I practice, the stronger my love grows for it,
and reading and writing has been no exception.
If could go back in time and slap some sense into my past self, I wouldnt hesitate to question it. Ever since I gained a passion for writing and reading, I have grown to
become more open minded of all situations, especially learning. When I was in high
school, I was so quick to disregard all things associated to school, and instead to pick
up interests that my peers were into, that I began to leave behind my morals and values
in that I hold most true to myself in the rearview. Ever since Ive obtained a desire to
study more through reading and writing, I have revitalized passion for learning more
about the unknown.