Abigail Shore

Professor Blandford
UWRT 1103
Monday 14 September 2015
My Literacy Memoir
Everyone at some point in their life learns to be a literate person in many different ways.
As for me, my journey to learn to read and write was not what most people expected. I learned to
read and write at a very young age. Literacy in my family was a big deal. My family was very
advanced in reading and writing, so I was determined to make sure I was just like them. As the
youngest my parents always compared me to my older sisters, and how well they did on the
subject of reading and writing. All I wanted was the approval form my dad that I was doing well
just like my sister but what I didnt realize was that I was going to have to work much harder
than I thought in order for my dad to be pleased with me. At that moment I sought out to be
better than my sisters so that my parents would finally praise me for being beyond what they
expected and more skilled than my sisters.
Literature was very important to me at a young age but mainly during my middle school
and high school career. I was adopted from South Korea when I was just a little baby, which my
parents thought would keep me from excelling as quickly as other kids. Being adopted definitely
was a struggle for me as a kid, so my parents made sure that I didnt fall behind the other kids
my age. When I was younger the way I dealt with this struggle of being adopted and being made
fun of by writing in a journal expressing what I was going through. I would write my thoughts
and feelings down in it almost every day because of what others would say to me. Writing for me

was my way of escaping from the world telling me that I was different from other kids. Now its
my way to deal with things I am going through. Because I was adopted my parents always
encouraged me to keep writing in my journals and made sure that I was excelling just as fast as
or even faster than the other kids my age. Being adopted brought me to love writing and to use
writing as a way to get away from the pessimistic people around me telling me that I was never
going to be able to keep up or be as good as the girls and boys my age. As I got older and was at
the age of four my parents started to push reading and writing. My dad would take me to library
every week to pick out books so that I would have a book to read every day so that I was
practicing my reading skills. My parents put a lot of effort into making sure I was pushing myself
to my learning limits. As a young child I didnt enjoy reading and writing all the time, but as I
got older I grew a passion for reading and writing. The things I read ranged from bibliographies
to sci-fi. Having a broad range of different of literature was pushed in my family. My dad would
always take me to the library to pick out a few books to read every week.
How I learned to read and write was very different than some kids. My parents would
make me read at least two books a day sounding out each word and learning what the words
meant. My entire life I was raised on the importance of knowing how to read and write. When I
was a little girl, my dad would read a book, mainly Dr. Seuss and Mother Goose Rhythms, to me
every night before bed. I was about 6 years old when my dad started reading the Nancy Drew
series to me. That series made me love reading. I would go to the library and a get a couple of
them to read a week. Like Sherman Alexie, I grew a passion to love books because of my father.
I looked up to my dad like Alexie did. I also understand how he felt when he was looked down
upon for reading and writing. As an adopted child, many people thought I wasnt going to be able
to keep up with everyone else who was from America, but my parents, especially my dad, knew I

was going to excel beyond what everyone else thought. My dad told me that I just had to keep
my head up and not let their discouraging words get to me. So like Sherman Alexie I looked past
what everyone else thought and put my mind to proving everyone wrong about me.
As a kid I never really loved reading all the time until it was about the second grade. My
teacher, Mrs. Calhoon, made reading exciting. Every day in her class I would always look
forward to reading time. I believe the reason I loved reading in her class was because she would
give us a jar and every time we were able to read an entire page to her of a book without messing
up we would get a scoop of skittles in our jar. So having a chance to receive a reward, I pushed
myself to read to the best of my ability even though I just got a scoop of skittles (which was like
gold to me as a little girl). Ever since her class I always enjoyed reading a book and learning it in
depth. The book I remember reading in fifth grade was Tom Sawyer. That book definitely taught
me to comprehend what I was reading very carefully and to pay attention to the context. It wasnt
until about my seventh grade year that I started hating reading and writing. I would dread my
English class every day. I complained almost every day about all the reading and writing we had
to do. I would not write much when it came to assignments. All I would do was write stuff down
just so I would get credit for the requirements of the papers due. I never really put much thought
or planning into any of my papers until two tragic incidents happened in my life. A kid in my
eighth grade classed passed away from suicide and my dad had a major heart attack. My teacher,
Mrs. Brown, had asked me to write a speech to give about my classmate Miles in front of the
entire student body. This is what made me to really put thought and meaning into writing. I
wanted to make sure to give the best speech possible about my classmate so everyone would
acknowledge the seriousness of suicide at the same time feel the power behind his testimony. I
believe even to this day that that was one of my best writings. Also in that same year, my dad had

a heart attack and had surgery on my thirteenth birthday. This is the main reason why I ventured
back into writing and reading. My dad was in the hospital for almost three months, and the one
thing he would always ask me to do every time I went to visit him was to read him. I read him
poems, lyrics, books, the newspaper, and even funny jokes or comics. Seeing my dad almost near
death twice during that time, I had promised my dad to get back into reading and writing for him.
I wanted to make my dad proud. Wanting to be a literate person was something that I was
determined to become during that time and still does because of my dad. I want to make my
family proud and show them how much they have impacted my life. To this day I still read books
when I can just to broaden my vocabulary and my reading ability. My senior year of high school
I had to read Wuthering Heights. That book made me want to rip my hair out of my head!
Although I love deep and mysterious books, Wuthering Heights was beyond anything I would
ever want to read or suggest for people to read. The book was very detailed and very hard to
comprehend in such a short time that having to read it so quickly is probably another reason why
I dont necessarily enjoy that book. It stressed my reading ability to its max. It wasnt the fact
that it was hard to read; it was more the context and how one was to comprehend the book as a
whole that was hard. Reading this book also made me understand the type of books that caught
my attention and drew my interest in to read them. I have learned so much about my reading and
writing skills and strengths I know I still have much to learn on becoming a literate person.
Being a literate person is more than learning to read and write. For me it was the desire to
bring honor to my dad and to show the people around me that they were wrong about me.
Literacy is something I will always have a passion for. Not only for my well-being, but also for
my future ahead. I want to keep learning new things about literacy and to broaden my ability to
understand the concepts behind the meaning of being a literate person. Although I have become a

literate person, I still have a journey ahead of me to keep growing and learning new things that I
didnt know before. I feel for myself that I am obligated to my dad to have a passion for reading
and writing. One day I want to be able to be the parent that my dad had for me for my children
when it comes to education and the importance of becoming a literate person. I have so much
more to learn on the aspects of becoming a literate person, but I know that I have people behind
me that support me every day on helping me become a better reader and writer.