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Lamar McIntyre
Ms. Sanchez
Reading Lab
4 December 2010
Narrative of Anthony Lamar McIntyre
I go by the name of Anthony Lamar McIntyre but most people call me Lamar. This
narrative is summarizing my life and the literature that was involved in it up to the point of my
first semester of college. I was born in the small town of Laurinburg, near Fayetteville, North
Carolina. There was really nothing active to do in the city of Laurinburg so there was a lot of
trouble to get in to. Through my twelve years of high school I have never been expelled from
school, though I was expelled off the bus in primary school for fighting. School seemed to
always interest me because of the attention I got from my peers. When I was out sick I could not
wait to get back to school, I guess I loved the attention. Other than that I was like any other kid
that did not like homework, really did not like to read out loud, late for class, and claimed my
favorite subject to be lunch. When we were told to read something we liked I choose books such
as; Encyclopedia Brown, Captain Underpants, Goose Bumps, or Harry Potter books. I only read
right before I went to bed, if I was not tired I got a lot of reading done. I also was active in
playing sports so I could not use my spare time to read. In high school I read a lot of books that
interested me, but I only read them because they were required. A book I remember that I really
liked was The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. This was a very interesting book in
my opinion because Tom and Huckleberry Finn were not boring characters, they stayed with
something exciting to do which made it easier for me to stay focused on the book. If I did read a
book on my own time It would have to be a mystery book. I always like the suspicion it left me
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with when I would stop reading making me want to read more and more. A book that I did
choose to read on my own time in high school was The Pact. This book related to my life in a lot
of ways and that grabbed my attention. I did my senior project off this book. The book was
about three young men who grew up in a bad time and environment and they made a pact with
each other that no matter what comes there way they would stick together and become doctors.
The books I read up to the point of my senior year in high school started to change from
when I was in elementary school. I now was reading nonfiction books about people lives. At a
young age I was not interested in nonfiction books it was all fiction. I seemed to learn things that
would help me in my life through the books I was reading. Most narrative books teach you a
lesson. A lot of the narratives or biographies I have read talks about the person going through
some kind of struggles in their life. I have written a number of narrative’s since I been in college.
I only been in college for almost a semester and in fifty percent of my classes I had to write
narratives. One of my classes I had to write about my freshman experience so far. In my
freshman thesis paper I wrote about a lot of the things I experienced since I transitioned from
high school to college. I also included the way the work differs from high school work, and my
struggles from the financial aid office this summer. I learned a life lesson from what happened to
me this summer with the financial aid office. My experience taught me to always have my own
copy of any paper work that I involve North Carolina Central with. I know if my freshman thesis
was read by other students they would learn what I learned but not by experiencing what I had to
experience, but just by reading what I put in my paper.
I have four college courses that have broadened my knowledge of literature. Out of these
four classes In my English class I was assigned to read the same book that I read in high school
called The Pact. Knowing that I had to read this book again I thought that I was a little brighter
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than the others because I read a college level book in high school. I also thought that I would not
have to read the book over; I thought I would just remember the book from when I first read it. I
learned other things like pre-writing strategies, using conjugants when writing and using an
outline. In high school when a paper was assigned I never used an outline it was just get the topic
and write the paper. Learning the effectiveness of the outline has made me able to write a paper
much smoother than the papers I wrote in high school. A big difference from high school to
college is we have resources like the writing studio to help us write our papers. I must say the
writing studio is a big help to students and I encourage other students to use it. Class assigned
books that I have read this semester that changed my view of the world are The Audacity of
Hope by Barack Obama, parts of the Narrative of Fredrick Douglas, an article called Is Black
Beauty Still a Feminist Issue, short stories from Maya Angelo, and once again The Pact. Most of
these books and articles made me look at life like I need to succeed with going through college
and get the education that I am paying for to make getting a job much achievable after school.
At the end of the semester my view on literacy has not changed that much. I still do not
see myself as being a writer but I do find writing a paper on certain topics is a lot easier to do
than before. As I mentioned earlier my style of literature books has changed, I like a different
style of books than I was interested in from when I was younger. Looking back on this semester I
think I started getting into the college style of working too late. I wish I could go back and use
my resources like the writing studio earlier on in the year instead of waiting to almost the end of
the year to use it. A lot of my papers would of came out better than they did leaving me with
better grades. Going through the classes that I had I accomplished a great amount of knowledge
that will help me in my future and other classes that I plan to take. I know that all the literature
that I used has broadened my vocabulary and my way of critical thinking. I see life situations a
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little easier to overcome. Reading and writing will always be a part of our life so I say we should
learn as much as we can when we get the chance.