My Literacy Journey

Literacy is defined as the ability to read and write, and most people believe just that – that literacy only goes as far as being able to read and write words, and up until my enrollment in English 1100 this semester, I too, for the most part, had that belief. As a child, I began my journey through literacy by first memorizing the alphabet, then learning to attach a name to the shape of the letter, and finally assigning a sound to each letter. When phonics was mastered, I then took the next step into reading and writing, by learning to mix letters to create words, use words to develop sentences, and take those sentences to construct paragraphs. Once I mastered reading and writing, I was then deemed literate, and the word ‘literacy’ slowly lost

Growing up, good grades were praised in our household but my parents nor my older siblings ever took extra steps in ensuring that I did well in school. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to or didn’t know how to, but instead they didn’t think I needed any extra assistance. Since I was so developed as a student, they sat back and watched; as long as assignments were being completed and I was doing well in school, they didn’t put in any extra effort in assisting or motivating me. But, like any other student, motivation from family was always desired. Sherman Alexie lacked supported from his entire community and was expected to fail, but instead of giving in to his pre-written destiny, he took matters into his own hands and broke the chain of illiteracy and failure. Through self-motivation, I too, like Alexie, pushed my own self to succeed. Even though learning and doing well in school wasn’t the first priority in our home, I made it the primary focus in my own life. Not only did I focus on my own educational success, I started to concern myself with the education of those around

I read to him, we played word games, and I practiced reading and writing with him. Similar to me, by the time he was in elementary school it was evident that he was far more advanced than his peers and our family members who were his age. I witnessed how my role in his academic life began to rub off on those around us. My cousins began reading and assisting their younger siblings with homework and writing, the cousins who were my brother’s age started to use more of their free time practicing things they’ve learned in school, such as writing their names, and my father sat down with my brother everyday and went over his spelling words with him and my mother helped him with his homework. Though literacy and academics had always played a vital role in our household, it took on a deeper role and went from just praising good grades to helping us attain and maintain