Alexa Dela Rosa
Professor Arcos
English 96
7 October 2015
A journey through words
At the age of three, my Dad was astonished to see and hear me reading my Disney book! He thought I was a genius! Little did he know that I have memorized the whole book. As a child, my parents told me that I was always curious about the world of reading. My interests were Dr. Seuss, Frog and Toad, and especially Disney’s children novels. The first book that was introduced to me was The Cat in the Hat. I remember this book somehow sparking the wires in my brain and how it stimulated my imagination. From elementary until now, I continue to improve more as a reader and writer.
I had such a love for books when I was younger because of the colored illustrations and the stories that are exciting to read. I learned my letters and road signs from these books. One day we were driving to go to the mall when I pointed to the Stop sign and said “Stop.” My parents were amazed! While my Mom was shopping, my Dad and I would be outside the stores and my Dad would be pointing the letters to me and I would tell him what they are. He would be so proud of me telling all our relatives that at the age of three I can recognize my letters.
Reading Disney books, especially the collection of Disney Princess stories took me to another world of castles, princes, magic and the pictures made me imagine I was a princess. Growing up with these lovely books and seeing the large body of paragraphs in the princess novels provoked me to write and raised my hopes that one day I could write such long paragraphs and sentences. I remember trying to copy the words in the book on another piece of paper, and struggling writing the letters and not understanding what they really meant.
Though Kindergarten was a bit of a blur, reading was more of an adventure to me because my teacher was the one who read to the book to the class, rather than us reading it on our own. But I remember my struggle with writing as a young girl who could not yet control her fingers that well. When we were given worksheets to trace the alphabet, I had a difficult time tracing the letters constantly erasing them, resulting in a messy paper. What made it more frustrating was that for most my classmates, it was a piece of cake and I felt I was the only one who couldn’t write. During the parent teacher conference, I was embarrassed to see my teacher pulling out my messy handwriting on a piece of dirty gray paper and showing it to my parents. From that time on I worked on my handwriting at home and soon I was able to trace the letters of the alphabet.
As I progressed in school, writing got easier for me. Though I didn’t spell many words correctly back then, I still enjoyed the fact that I knew how to write letters and basic sentences. But transitioning to 4th grade, I started to struggle reading novels and textbooks. This was the time when I lost my grandpa and when my mother had a heart surgery. While my mother was recuperating, she let me do all my homework by myself without her so much needed guidance. I became indifferent in school, I was not interested in the materials we learned and the novels we read, I lost my focus. Although I was able to pass most of the quizzes and tests with an average grade, seeing my friends succeed frustrated me. It became worse during middle school, where the books got more complicated. The vocabulary got more complicated and there were less pictures in the book, which made it hard for me to actually imagine the characters and the scenery. There were only a few novels that I actually liked reading. When it came to writing book reports and making keynote presentations, I never had fun creating them because my interest and passion for the book was not there.
I did not begin to improve until my 8th grade year. Our last project in English was to create a keynote presentation. We were all working hard, because we knew that it would be a vital part of our final grade. I was honestly anxious about this project; I remember that night being one of the most stressful nights of my 8th grade year. I worked three hours on a five paragraph essay while putting together a keynote presentation. The next day, I was the first one to present my project! Sleepy- eyed and cranky, I did my presentation on my novel and show cased my keynote. Up to this moment, I could not remember how I did it, but when our grades came in the week before graduation, my teacher actually gave me an A for my overall essay and presentation. After graduation, I remember her telling me how proud of me she was, and how I’ve grown in three years as a writer. This uplifted me so much because everyone knows that her English class was the hardest one in my school. She expected so much from us the minute we stepped into her classroom. But I know that she prepared us for the bigger world beyond high school.
During my junior year in High School, I had to step up my game for my English III teacher. I recalled my upperclassmen friends telling me how difficult the English III teacher is, during my freshman year. Though all you needed to pass his class was to take notes in class and read the material he assigned during class. At the beginning of my junior year, I definitely had a hard time keeping up with the work because he would assign at least two chapters a night. Being in his class, however, helped me get ahead in reading and taught me the to delve into the novel. I ended up passing English III with an average of 89, which I considered satisfactory because had a D in the beginning of the year.
Even though I still have a bit of struggle with reading and writing today, I definitely have to thank my elementary and high school teachers for helping me along the way. If it weren’t for St. Patrick’s elementary and Salesian College preparatory schools, I feel that I would have possibly given up on the English classes. My schools have helped me, in a lot of ways, preparing me for college and beyond. I know that there is still room for improvement, but I am confident that I can conquer all these English classes that have yet to come!
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