Reading,it is one the fundamental skills you learn in life.You can find stuff to read every where from street signs to posters on a wall words can be found every where you go. But the journey of understanding what those words mean is specific to each individual. Everyone’s journey to learning is different mine began with listening.
Ever since I could remember I have loved hearing stories. Weather it was people’s anecdotes, music, cars on the street any thing. I was one of those kids would look through photo albums and asking about every picture. But my favorite thing was when my mom would lie down next to me and my two sisters, Michaila and Jaqui, in our row Baltimore city row home and read us bed time stories. Most of them where Doctor sues books, like One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and she would have us look at the pictures and follow along with the worlds. That was my experience with learning how to read.
Unfortunately my road to learning how to read and write would be a difficult and long one. I started to learning the alphabet during pre-k and kindergarten. Once I got to first grade I was diagnosed with ADD as well as a form of Dyslexia, witch I wouldn’t find out until I was older. This meant I was extraordinary bad at reading as well as writing especially spelling. When I started reading I would get the letters mixed up or the words just didn’t click in my head. It felt like I was reading the same sentence over and over but all I could look at the letters and they just wouldn’t form words. When heard it read out loud I was fine but reading just didn’t click or it felt like my brain was just putting the pieces slower. some how I don’t remember being too frustrated, just determined to overcome this challenge.
One night I faced it head on stayed up reading into a five year old’s version of the late hours of the night, aka nine thirty. But I didn’t have a clock so who knows. After I got ready for bed I laid wide awake in my top bunk waiting for my other two sisters to fall asleep so I wouldn’t wake them up with the lamp attached to my bed. In order to keep them from waking up I had the lamp turned down low enough for them to not notice but strong enough for me to see the text and pictures on the pages of the slightly used copy of the book witch I read over and over again until I basically had the book memorized.
Another incident that kept me motivated was in second happened in second grade. Went one day I went up to my grandmothers house and she presented me with a case full of old Nancy Drew books from her childhood. I instantly fell in love with the way covers looked in that the out side of the pages had a different color then the inside, I loved the illustrations inside. The books also made me feel older and smarter. After I brought them home I would walk around reading them despite the fact that I didn’t really understand what was going on in the story I still thought it was thrilling. Not long afterwards I found some graphic novels that revolved around her and her adventures. I read those several times as well. Loving every single page of it.
After I grew out of my Nancy Drew phase I entered my Percy Jackson phase. One fateful summers day I was sitting at home when my mom brought me a book as and the audio book called Percy Jackson. Once I saw the cover my curiosity was spiked when I saw in the cover a three headed dog! So I wasn’t planning on doing anything that day I decided to read it. Once I started I count stop. I was enthralled with the adventure, danger, likable characters and Greek mythology and once I finished the first one I immediately asked if their was a sequel and too my surprise there already was! So I immediately read that one as well and after that one I found out that the next one was coming out next year. From then on I decided to make it a tradition to read each Percy Jackson book that comes out during the summer.
When I was reading Percy Jackson I discovered that one of the reasons that I could get through them so quickly was because of the audio books that I read along to. In my senior year of high school I would find out that I process information more efficiently but I am a slower visual learner. This probably explained why I work better when I am listening to an audio book then when I am just reading a book and why like audio books more then the average person. The only reason I say that is because when I have time to my self, when I’m not watching a movie or going out with friends, I am most likely listening to a classic, such as Cater in the Rye, Sherlock Homes, Jurassic Park, on audio book while sipping a cup of black tea in a fun mug with some homemade scones on the side. While I color in an adult coloring book. I some times this convinces me that I am secretly an old person inside especially when tell people my age that I do this. Most the responses range from that sounds very British to some weird looks but I find it very relaxing, so who cares because it’s some thing that I recovered all on my own
I wasn’t alone through all of this I had a lot of help from both my parents as well as specialists such as one named Ms.Reed who helped me out. Half way through first grade my family packed are bags from that row home in Baltimore city and moved to Baltimore County where where we would live in a medium sized row home for the next eight years. Once I started school there I would start what I would call “Extra reading class” with two other students named Katy and Jack.
The girl Katy was nice also had trouble with reading the boy named Jack was the second most hyperactive child I have ever met in my life. In fish grade he had to put books on his lap just to stay still in his chair. The three of us would continue to be in each others lives until High school where Katy transferred in to a private school and Jack and I ran in different crowds. During those classes we would go over words and phrases reading them out loud as well as spelling them. We did this by reading books out loud as well as reading out flash cards, sounding out parts of words and building our vocabulary as a whole. Another thing that we did was working on our hand writing and learning how to hold a pencil properly. Jack and I where the only one’s in this part of the class. but over all my hand writing is little better off for it.
In the end I was passion for story telling, determination and active listening I can now read and write as well as I do.