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Joel Diaz
Professor Thomas
ENC 1101
24 June 2015
Literacy: The Most Important Thing I Own
Literacy was something that was never able to captivate my interest; however, there were
sometimes in my life that I was able to appreciate the fact that I do have the ability to read and
write. We all remember those days when we were in elementary school and we were forced to
say the ABC’s out loud with the other children. Well when I was a child in Kindergarten at
Tomoka Elementary, I hated having to say my ABC’s out loud with all of the other kids because,
at the time, I just hated anything that was not math. Still, there have been moments in my life that
made me look back at those times and realize how important learning about literacy was for my
future, along with the person who first taught me how to read and write, my mother.
One such moment where I realized the importance of reading and writing the most was
actually at Church. When I was younger, I would go to Calvary Christian Church, which was a
fairly large area with many different buildings to go inside of, with my family every Sunday,
Wednesday, and occasionally on other days when there were special events. After my family
moved to Lake Mary, Florida from Ormond Beach, Florida, we would still go to Calvary
Christian Center; however, my father would teach bible studies after service. But since we lived
far away, we would just stay at church the entire day until late at night. At this time I had no
portable electronics such as a phone or video game, so instead I would just walk around and try
to find something to entertain myself with. Just about every Sunday I would constantly complain
to parents about how bored I was almost periodically, kind of like having an alarm on the snooze
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setting. Eventually my parents got fed up with it and they decided to buy me a book to occupy
my time.
Even though my parents had bought me the book, at the time I still did not even like the
idea of reading anything outside of my classes at school. So I would still not read the book and
continued to complain to my parents. Of course, my parents did not like listening to me complain
about how bored I was and how I wanted to go home. Instead what they did was tell me that I
finished the book and prove to them that I had read the book they would give me five dollars.
Back then five dollars was a lot for me, so naturally I started to read the book which was Oliver
Twist, which was written by Charles Dickens. The book was about a young boy who was
orphaned named Oliver, and it talks about the trials and tribulations he went through before he
found a family that came to accept him. Oliver Twist was a pretty easy read for me. After I had
read the book, I was able to prove it to my father by giving him a summary of the book; which
was only possible because he had only read the book himself when he was younger. After that I
got my five dollars; however, after that I began to realize that not all books were boring, and
because I still needed something to do on Sundays I began to find other books that I could read.
One such book was Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightning Thief, which was about a
young boy named Percy, who is the son of Poseidon. He is given the task of hunting down the
person who stole Zeus’ lightning bolt.
Learning that reading was not so bad would have been impossible if it was not for my
mother who taught me how to read and write in the first place. When I was an even smaller child
before I went to Kindergarten at Tomoka Elementary, my mother tried to enroll me into
preschool; however, the school did not accept me. So instead my mother would buy grammar
and math books and would teach me the basics of both. I learned how to write by tracing the
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letters in that book with my mother’s guidance and how to pronounce words by repeating after
her; much like how the children are taught to do it when they are in school. Even after I started
Kindergarten, it was my mother who would help me with all things that involved English. When
I was in higher grades but still in elementary school, it was still my mother who would help me
with my English homework. In fact, it was my mother who was the one to suggest to my father
to get me a book to read on Sunday’s after service, and it was also her who decided to spark my
interest in reading Oliver Twist by offering me five dollars once I finished the book. Of course,
there were many other times in the past were my mother would find a book for me to read;
however, as time went on I eventually grew tired of reading novels and not even she could ignite
my interest again because I had started to play more video games; which told similar stories but
were more engaging because instead of observing a story you would become part of the story.
As time went on, my mother eventually was no longer able to help me with my school
work, and as stated above my interest in novels began to dwindle. Now any kind of reading I
decide to do will usually be for the sake of learning something new, which is why I will usually
only read textbooks and some scientific books. Even though I now realize that having the ability
to read and to write is a very important skill to have, I do not personally like literature as much as
I used to; however, I will always be grateful to my mother who is the one who taught me about
literacy and without her I would not be where I am today.