Samantha Silva

Professor Juarez
English 01
July 8, 2014
Down the Lane to Literacy
My first experiences with reading came, as with most people, in the form of bedtime
stories. Having others read to them is often how people first realize what written word is and
how to appreciate it. Learning to convert ones thoughts into letters on paper usually happens in
school and it is books that teach children what else they could do with those letters besides
formal writing. My progression through literacy has been easy in some places and more
difficult in others.
Learning to love the written word was the easiest part for me. From the moment I was
conceived, I was bombarded by the sound of words being read aloud. I must have always
known reading was very important because the first memories I have as a child deal with books.
Said Andree Bacque in Drop Everything and Read (110). This is something I can relate to as
reading became a priority in life from an early age. My grandmother fought for the right to give
me my first soft baby book. Literature was seen in a very positive light by both her and my
mother, causing them to work hard to foster a strong appreciation for writing in me. Every night I
would choose one book for my mother to read to me and one book for me to sleep with like a
stuffed animal (kind of a consolation prize for reading the other one over it). I learned to read at
the age of four and I never had much issue with reading after that. My mother told me of an
event that happened when I was around seven. We had just gotten a new Harry Potter book and I
was very excited for her to read it to me. She suggested that I try reading it aloud to her instead. I

resisted because it was a big book and I had only read thin chapter books up until then. She
insisted and I read it to her. After realizing that reading big books was an option, I also realized
that it meant I could read it even when my mother was busy. From that day forward, she would
find me around the house curled up in corners, clutching the book. I remember lying on a sofa
reading it day after day, even eating meals with it (as the still present food stains can attest). It
was definitely a key moment in my reading in that it opened up a door to endless possibilities. It
meant that just because a book wasnt directed toward children didnt mean I couldnt read it. As
I went on to elementary school, I always read several grade levels above my own and I cant
remember ever really struggling to read as a child. While my reading went very smoothly, my
writing journey had a few bumps.
It was the rules of writing in the English language that were more difficult to grasp for me
than reading was. I went to a Montessori school from preschool until third grade and they had a
very hippie way of doing things. They argued that all children had the desire to express
themselves regardless of ability to write and had their students phonetically write stories until
they were old enough to learn spelling and grammar rules. Because of this I dont remember a
time before I could write. I think this greatly enhanced my ability to express myself in writing
and beyond. The first road block came in the form of the new rules that now were being applied
to my writing.
When I hit fourth grade, I greatly struggled with spelling and messy handwriting. When I
started being required to spell correctly I found the spelling and grammar rules to be nonsensical
and to take up too much of my precious preteen time. This was most likely caused by me having
been more comfortable with spelling phonetically, but I think at the core it was the fault of my

own impatience. Goodbye free-form. I could no longer talk like I spoke, and I had come to rely
greatly on spoken word.
I had been talking since before I was one and had grown quite fond of communicating, so
not being able to do so adequately, understandably made me upset. I just wanted to get my
thoughts down and phonetic spelling had allowed things to flow. There were no boundaries to get
in the way. In contrast, these new writing rules constricted my communication like never before.
Ultimately though, my poor spelling ability lay in the habit of spelling things in a certain way,
even if they were wrong, just because it was comfortable to do so. The wrong thing had become
the default. Every time I would go to type an assignment up, the same words were getting
underlined in red, but the computer would just autocorrect it and I had no need to actually learn.
It was always simple words like tomorrow, and because.
Along with that, there was also the obstacle of word choice. If I ever encountered a new
word while reading, I could almost always use context clues to figure out its meaning and then,
bam, new vocabulary. With writing I was limited to only the vocabulary I already knew. On top
of that, because I refused to memorize words at first, I was limited in the vocabulary I could
select from while writing based on which words I could spell. My vehement hate for dictionaries
made matters worse and in the end I had to halt and reassess my stubbornness before I could
progress. Currently, dictionaries and I have made up and have an alright relationship but before I
could never understand why I was always told to look up a word if I didnt know how to spell it
when dictionaries were set up alphabetically and required one to know how to spell a word to
find it.
Unfortunately it wasnt just spelling that I had issues with. In elementary school I
remember being so confused over the rules of using quotations for dialogues. I was assigned time

to a parent-teacher volunteer, Mrs. Alden, and after a while of wandering around in the muck it
just clicked. It was one of those things that in reality are quite easy but somehow get mixed up in
a mind and come out as more complicated than they really are. With help and patience things
will work themselves out. In middle school I realized with the type of person I someday hoped to
be and the types of people I would be associating with that laziness in writing wasnt going to
fly. Consistent poor grammar and spelling were not going to be tolerated. So I just sat down and
quickly looked up the differences between there, their, and theyre as well as your, and
youre. From then on, I didnt have any huge issues with the mechanics of writing. Things got
more complicated, however, when applied to creative writing.
When I was maybe ten, I started showing a big interest in creative writing. The issue was
that I never seemed to be able to finish a story; somehow it would just go askew as I was writing
it and wouldnt be worth finishing in my eyes anymore. Still, I managed to produce one story
that, although it had a horribly put together second half, seemed decent enough. My parents
suggested that I try writing a story for a summer challenge issued by the local library, but in
order to do that they basically locked me in a room with a computer. I would get in trouble if I
said I was writing but I wasnt. They became too invested in my interest and put pressure on me
to succeed in it which resulted in me stopping creative writing for many years off and on until
middle school and high school.
When I resumed writing, I did so tentatively, going about it more like a squirrel collecting
acorns for a nut stash than a writer. I would get an idea, write a page or two on it, then later see
something and save the picture to remember what idea it triggered for me. My worlds religious
symbols were worked out on a math tests paper, character backgrounds were fleshed out and
events started developing. Maps were drawn and histories started. In Lockdown, a literacy

narrative about Evans D. Hopkins experiences as a freelance writer in prison, Hopkins writes, I
have accumulated papers, magazines, and books of a practicing freelance writer I wonder how
much of all this stuff they will say is reasonable, when sometimes even I question the sanity of
holding on to so much (103). Like Hopkins, my room became a stack of paper, even with a
computer holding a portion of my references and work. I stuck with what I was good at, which
was generating ideas. If I wasnt good at actually sitting down and writing a linear story, then I
wouldnt, not at first. I would just get the pieces and put it all together when I was more qualified
to do so. Basically, when I feel I am ready. Perhaps this is passive writing, where one just kind of
lives with the story as if it is a house guest instead of confronting it and trying to write it in
completeness. Id like to think that that nut stash will someday grow to be a forest. Their tree
branches making up the people, places, and events of the world, as well as actual trees.
Moving away from that awkward metaphor, I realized that the more time I take with the
story the better it will be, so theres no point in rushing it. Even if ideas I had at whatever age
were good, even if the writing itself wasnt too horrible, its better to wait for a few years
because most books that have been written by teenagers havent usually turn out to be the best.
While I love the story behind Eragon, when I revisited it some years after my first reading, I was
too annoyed with Christopher Paolinis writing style to get very far. Of course, this is personal
preference, but to me, theres no use producing something that isnt the best it could be, at least
when it comes to books. Ive found that many, many people write books; its a rather common
pastime actually. I might as well make this count, at least in my eyes. Without the pressure to
complete something within a set time I have been able to further my writing abilities and I hope
to continue to do so.

One of the things in my life that strongly affected my writing and my attitude towards
writing were the conversations that I had with my favorite teacher over the course of a year. One
particular idea comes to mind now, and I interpreted it like this: Stories are the vehicle upon
which ideas ride. Words are the parts and grammar, and form holds it all together. When writing
was revealed to be just an ingenious and versatile way to get important ideas into peoples heads
and make them stay there, I felt a newfound zeal for it develop within me. The more beautiful an
author forms theirr story, the more the ideas theyve hidden within it will stay with their readers.
This could be something like the underlining themes of protect your environment or a satire on
the state of the world, materialism, current government corruption and so on or perhaps
something simpler like the power of hope. One might think of it as ranging from Jonathan
Swifts Gullivers Travels to J.K. Rowlings Harry Potter series in message. When this concept
was introduced to me it filled me with wonder and excitement. It gave me a purpose for all my
thoughts that had previously seemed frivolous or useless and became an outlet for expression.
While I havent even gotten close to the writing ability of those I admire, it is a nice aspiration to
motivate me for the time being. Its comforting to know theres always room for improvement.
One only needs to look at how far my writing has come from the difficulties of my childhood to
be assured of this.
When I had such ease with reading it may seem odd that I encountered such difficulties
with spelling and other mechanics of writing, but learning is a varied experience, and things that
should seem easy arent always. Reading and writing are directly linked but the processes for
consuming something and the processes for producing it are very different. I struggled with
spelling for years, and then at some point the gears all just fell in their grooves and I became
decent enough at spelling to become a normal member of society. I found that as I aged I was

actually comprehending writings that had baffled me a few years ago. I think my improvements
in writing are like that as well. While Im still not the best speller, or the most knowledgeable of
all grammar Nazis, or even a person who relaxes by reading high level historical texts, its nice
to know that in reading and writing there is always progress to be made, and I will forever busy
myself with making it.