#fyw03

In my short twenty-eight years on this earth I have endured a life that most would be destroyed from. A life that some never come back from. Life handed me lemons from the beginning. Parents separation, father’s addiction, mothers depression, stepfathers addictions, to mentally and physically abusive partners, to being a single mom at the age of twenty-one. After everything that life has handed me, I continue to fight. Every time I get knocked down, writing gets me back up. I have written almost on a daily basis since I was a junior in high school. Writing has been my only out. It was the only black in white in my horridly gray life. Writing got me through my darkest days, gets be through my bad days, and most importantly helps me celebrate and cherish my great days. When you leave this world, who is going to know YOUR story, if you don’t write it?

When Chase turned about 3years old, I picked up a journal and began to jot things down that he did that day. To remind me of the day that I would never get back and he would never be that little again, ever. Since that day it has become a couple times a week habit, of picking up a journal and just jotting down things that he has done to make me stop and appreciate life. For instance the other day, he was so proud of a Titantic ship he drew and was so anxious about showing me. To some, you might wonder “So what?”, to me I remembered in that moment that someday he is going to grow up, and the days of him running into my room holding his new artwork, anxiously waiting for me to oooh and ahh over it, will soon come to an end. These moments I want to remember forever.

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.

 https://www.dangerouslybeautifullife.wordpress.com/

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.