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Kindergarten Reading
Kindergarten was when my family migrated to the United States so I hated reading as I did not know any English. -
First Grade Reading Contest
My school introduced a reading contest in first grade and as soon as my mom heard about it, she encouraged I take part in it. I still disliked reading as I did not know English very well, but was forced to read by my parents. -
Love/Hate Relationship
At this point in my life, my second grade teacher worked diligently with me, as well as with a tutor, to help me learn English. As I learned the language more, reading did not become as tough as I once thought it was and my hate for it began to wither. -
Reading Contest Winner
The more I learned English, the more I begun to read. This year, I read so much I won the contest for reading the most hours and received a medal for it. -
A New Genre!
Starting 7th grade, my aunt and uncle became my legal guardians and so I had to move to a new school. Instead of going straight home, I would purposely take the school bus to my other aunt's house and go to the library instead. There, I discovered anime books and spent endless hours reading them. They were so entertaining, they sparked my interest in reading again and I shared many with my older sister. -
The Library - My Refuge
Freshman year of high school, I was not very social. A lot of people knew me, but I was just not very interested in being out there and speaking to anyone. Thus, I despised lunch hour and tried to find a way to escape it. The library became my refuge, and I spent most, if not all, of my lunch periods there. -
BORRRINNNGG
Junior year, we were assigned a bunch of classic books to read that did not catch my interest. To make it worst, my junior year high school English teacher seemed to enjoy belittling the people who were not much of avid readers, which made me start to lose interest in reading again. -
Franken-who?!
My senior year of high school, I had an amazing teacher who not only made reading fun, but also cared for her students. I never had a teacher that sat us down in a reading circle and discussed the book with us, as well as provided supplemental material that allowed us to connect books with different stories and articles. The quizzes that we had to take junior year finally connected and dry words such as "allusions" finally made sense. We discussed Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and I was in love! -
Reading - A Whole New World
After I graduated high school, I spend the summer checking out and buying a lot of books that were not only interesting, but that also helped me learn life skills. I begun to become interested in books that would help shape me, and was finally able to connect the importance of books to my life. Opening new books felt like I had walked into a whole new world, and the mentors who I did not have in person were replaced by the characters in the books I read. -
Paying it Forward
Although I do not read as much as I would like to anymore, I take the opportunity to visit my godson and my husband's nephew to try and read to them. I did not have the experience of my parents or anyone reading to me, so I try and emphasize how fun reading could be to children so that they may grow to love it one day.
