Life!

We all have people, places, and things that contributed to us becoming the literate person we are today. Deborah Brandt shares what these different aspects that contributed to our literacy journal are called. She says that people, institutions, and circumstances that motivate us to get literate are known as “literacy sponsors”. These sponsors can be any people including your parents, teachers, and friends; they could also be institutions like schools, churches, and universities. The most important thing that Brandt shares about literacy sponsors is the fact they all have their personal motives for encouraging you and becoming your literary sponsor. Some of their motives could be selfish and have negative effects on you while others could be good and have a positive impact on your literacy journey (Writing about Writing, p.68). In the following posts, I will be sharing some of my personal literacy sponsors who made me the literate person I am today.

My high school, David Douglas, was the biggest sponsor of my writing and reading. This school had a huge population of diverse students and that made feel welcome and pushed me to learn.This school had English Language Development (ELD) class that helped students like me whose first language wasn’t English. At this school, I met my ELD teacher, Mr. Riesenman who always encouraged my writing. He always liked my essays and used them as examples in class. His encouragement made me feel proud that even though English wasn’t my first college, my writing showed proficiency in English. My high school senior year English teachers, Mr. Rivas and Mrs. Apple, were also great sponsors of my writing because they challenged me in ways that I often didn’t like but was grateful for. They made me write research papers and long essays that improved my writing a lot and got me ready for college writing.

Before college, I really loved reading for pleasure. Throughout high school, I read a lot of young adult mystery/horror fiction novels. At my high school’s library, I discovered R.L. Stine who is the author of the fear street series. I really loved this series because they made me fall in love with reading. They were written for people my age and I could relate to them. Stine’s books were so intriguing that I always finished the whole book in one sitting. I read all the fear street series I could find at local libraries but there are a lot more out there that I would love to read if I could have free access to. The picture above is the cover of some of the fear street novels by Stine.

Another literacy sponsor that really encouraged my reading was my local county public library. My English teacher, Mrs. Healey, knew how much I loved reading and told me about the library which is called “Midland library”. I was getting tired of my high school’s library because I couldn’t find anymore books I enjoyed there. So, I was really happy to know that there was another place I could get books I enjoy for free. Since the library was really close to me, I didn't to have to find a ride; I usually walked to the library after school to borrow a bunch of books. Fortunately, I wasn’t disappointed and over the next two years of discovering the library, I found many different books I enjoyed and got to know some amazing authors of fiction that I haven't heard about before. I got to learn about April Henry after reading her amazing mystery books from my local library. She was the second author whose books I loved reading because like Stine, they were written for audience my age. But also, the books were based in the city I lived in: Portland, Oregon. The next post will share some important information of how my attitude about reading and my literacy sponsors shifted.

As you can see from the picture, I borrowed over 200 books from the library in two years when I was in high school. I didn’t have to read a lot of school related literature in high school like I do now in college, so I had a lot of time and interest to read all these books. But over the last year, I haven’t read much for pleasure because I’m so busy with school related readings that I don’t want to read anymore after I’m done with the required school readings. I have 3 books that I borrowed over a year ago that I didn’t even open yet. I just keep renewing them in hopes that I might open them someday. I really doubt that I’m going to return to the reader I was before college, but I hope that I start reading again for pleasure, even if it’s a few pages long book. The next post will share how the books I read influenced my future.

Lastly, my interest in mystery books have heavily impacted my life and career path. Because of those books, I became interested in criminal justice and began to seek out schools that have great criminology programs. Even though Hamline University is a really expensive school, I chose to go there because it’s one of the few schools that have a decent criminal justice program. I did read books from different genres but I never felt as passionate or interested as I did when reading mystery/crime novels. I might have stopped reading mystery books, but I’m still grateful for the impact they had on my life and will continue to have in my future goals and career plans.