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Kaitlyn Meads

Mrs. Layton

English 1010

13 September 2018

A Changed Perspective

Before sixth grade, I was not a reader. The only time I ever picked up a book was if it

was required reading for school. In sixth grade, my sister forced me to read ​Edenbrooke ​by

Julianne Donaldson. I read a few pages and immediately was bored. I stopped reading, but my

sister, being the stubborn person she is, was determined to make me finish the book. Every night

at bedtime we sat on her bed and she read at least one chapter to me. Over time, I fell in love

with every character. After finishing ​Edenbrooke,​ ​ s​ he shoved any book she could in my

direction. I read them all and loved them all. After a while, I wanted to create my own stories.

This began my writing journey.

In seventh grade, I decided to take a creative writing class. This quickly became my

favorite class. My teacher was laid back and the activities were both helpful and enjoyable. I

enjoyed every minute of it. In November, every student in our class was given the option to

participate in National Novel Writing Month. Most of the students decided not to participate and

were instead assigned other assignments. I, on the other hand, was ecstatic about the opportunity.

I wanted to create a story of my own and this was my chance! Day after day I hacked my brain

trying to come up with a storyline. A week passed and I had only written four pages of a story

that I wasn’t confident in. I had no clue where it was going. I increasingly grew disheartened.

Why couldn’t I come up with a simple story? Writing became something of frustration for me
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from that day on. However, I soon learned that writing your own stories doesn’t always need to

be fictional; you can use your own experiences and emotions to come up with ideas.

A few years later, my life became a roller coaster. I carried struggle after struggle on my

shoulders and exhaustion and my anxiety held a tight grasp on me. To escape my stressful world,

I frequently turned to what I love most: reading and music. As I payed more attention to the

lyrics of music and the stories in certain novels, I quickly realized that I could relate to them.

This interested me and inspired me to do some research. I listened to interviews, read

biographies, and researched problems in certain time periods trying to understand why the author

wrote what they did. I soon realized that most stories are influenced in some way by real events

and experiences. This sparked my love for determining the story or meaning behind the literature

that I read.

The last few years in school have been fantastic. I have used my newfound love of

finding the true meaning, or what I consider to be the true meaning, when reading, dissecting,

and writing works in school. One notable experience occurred in ninth grade. We were studying

poetry, a creative writing category that I have always struggled to understand. One assignment

was to use the TPCASTT method to dissect the poem “The World Is Too Much With Us” by

William Wordsworth. This assignment took extensive thought, but I eventually created a

summary of what I thought Wordsworth was trying to convey. This assignment, among many

others, has taught me that writing and reading may be challenging at times, but there is always an

underlying meaning that we can discover if we are willing to put in the work to understand it.

While my viewpoints on reading and writing have been negative in the past, my recent

experiences with literature has ignited a change. I have been able to expand my perspective and
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recognize that literature is more than meaningless words on a page. There are hidden meanings

and lessons behind the pages.