Easton Smith

Dr. Sean George

English 1010-D
September 7, 2016

Throughout my whole life reading and writing has been a very impactful thing. As a kid I
never expected how reading and writing would affect your life in so many different ways. It had
affected my life for good, but also for the bad. Growing up as a kid with some reading and
writing offsets, I never believed that I would be impacted so much by it. Reading and writing can
greatly impact your life in many ways.
While I was learning how to write I had a little difficulty doing so. While I was at school
my teacher had myself learn to write with my left hand, which was strange because at the same
time at my house my mother was also trying to teach me to write but with my right hand. So you
can see the conflict with how confused I was with learning how to write. My teacher then was so
confused on why I was not progressing with writing, when the parent teacher conference came
around it all quickly became clear to her why I wasnt progressing all that well. My mom had
discussed with her that she was teaching myself how to write with my right hand which was
opposite of what she was. From there on out my writing progressed very well, but has for the
reading aspect, it wasnt smooth sailing either.
Growing up my dad and one of my brothers I had always seen reading. It didnt matter
where we were or when, they were without a doubt going to be reading a book. As the younger

brother that made me want to be just like my brother and read all day every day just like him. So
when I picked up one of the books he was always reading, I noticed I didnt know half of the
words in the book. I knew how to read and pronounce the simple, common words of the book,
but when it came to the big, sophisticated words I couldnt read them. I was so confused on why
I couldnt. I went to my teacher then and asked her why I couldnt read some of the words that
were in the book, she looked at me and said, This is a high school level book. She made it
clear that I was no far enough along with reading to understand this book. It was frustrating
because all I wanted to do was read and by like my dad and brother. So from there all I did was
read and keep going until the point of where I could finally understand and fully read the same
books as them.
When I had gotten into high school, reading and writing was a big part of my life. A big
part of reading and writing came when I was in history. I loved history growing up, even to the
point when I was a kid where I would read my older brothers history textbook just for fun. Be
able to read the words in the textbook was important to because you were able to comprehend
what it meant and then transfer it to paper and write your paper or assignment. Being able to
transfer the words that I read in the textbook into words I was writing down on my assignment,
that was a lot more important to me that I have ever thought.
My brother served an LDS mission in Brazil. He grew up only speaking, reading and
writing in English. So when he got his mission call, he was called to speak in Portuguese. To him
it was a big deal since we are from a little farm town in the middle of Utah. Before you go to the
place where you were called to you go to a place called the MTC. Which is where they train you
to speak the language you were called in. He had 11 weeks to learn almost the whole language,
and he did. But when I was writing him he had started to write back in the language and I had no

idea what he was saying. So reading and writing had an impact on him not only in his native
English tongue, but also in a secondary language. It impacted him so much that he only reads in
that language now ever to this day. He still writes letters in it to people in Brazil that he met
while he was there. So reading and writing in both languages impacted his life greatly.
Life skills are just second nature to you now, like reading and writing and speaking. But
at first you struggled with every single one of them. Whether youre writing and you cant spell a
certain word, or whether you cant read or have to read in a different language. The skills you
possess in reading and writing greatly impact your life in multiple ways each.