Personal Literacy Narrative Draft 3

Personality Literacy Narrative

            My name is Randee Lee. Yes, Randee like a boy’s name, but spelled differently. My major is Kinesiology with an emphasis on physical education to become a high school P.E. teacher and basketball coach. I’ve played basketball since I was five, thanks to my two older siblings. I grew up with a brother who’s ten and a sister who’s seven years older than me. As being the youngest, you always strive to beat your older siblings whether it be in school or sports. I believe I beat them both in both categories. Aside from sports, reading was never really my thing. I always had a hard time pronouncing words and was a slow and still am a slow reader. Although I’m not the greatest reader, I enjoyed most books that had fantasy and adventure. I learned that with the right type of books that I like I won’t put it down unless I’m too tired to continue or it’s too dark to see. My favorite books are from the Inkheart series and as well as the I Am Number Four series. They intrigued my creativity to picture what the story is like if it were to become a movie. I’ve always liked writing, but I believe I’m not that great at it. I enjoyed writing poems and letters growing up but when it came to academic writing, my creativity somehow went out the window. I really became the type of student I knew I could be in my senior year of high school, from becoming president of a community service group, learning how to be an active reader, and reflecting on how the world really is from a personal tragedy. I’m a very driven person and once a task is put in front of me I put all 105 pounds of me into my work, whether it be for a personal achievement, or academic growth. 

            During my senior year of high school, I became president of the Japanese American Citizens League Eden Youth Community Service Group. At the EYG’s installation dinner, which is where the officers are sworn into their positions, I was put on the spot to make a speech about what EYG meant to me. I wasn’t nervous about speaking, moreover I wasn’t expecting to have to come up with something to say with such short notice. Although being a senior, it was my first time being president of anything in my high school career and above all a community service group. I in a way grew up in EYG, both my brother and sister did EYG, and as the little sister I had to tag along to all of the events. So I felt that I had already went through EYG and didn’t need to do it again. But as I was writing out the speech, things just flowed into my head about what to say. I spoke about how EYG used to be when my brother and sister were a part of it and how I felt the need to revitalize it back to when it had twenty or so members. With experiencing having to make a speech on the spot, it helped me quickly prepare myself and stand in front of people I do and do not know. And after the installation dinner was over, one of the chairman came up to me and said thank you and that I did a good job. This event helped boost my confidence in public speaking and helped me establish responsibility as president at the time. I didn’t realize how improvising and reverting back to my own personal wishes could impact me as a writer and to other people.

            Throughout my English class, my senior year, we had Active Reading Guides to keep us engaged in the books we read in class. As we read, we had four specific charts to fill out; a character chart to describe each character, where they were first introduced and their importance to the book. Second, to look for specific scenes of examples and describe them in how it’s an example of the themes throughout the book. Third, state two important quotes per chapter and write a reflection on it. Lastly, write any questions or statements for every chapter about the plot, characters, any confusion, or relations. While doing the active reading guides, it kept me from just reading the book, just to read it. I had to really think about what I was reading and make sure to fill out the charts correctly. ARGs helped me by making me become an active reader. I highlight, underline and summarize a lot of my books now, especially for school purposes. Thanks to one of my favorite teachers Mrs. Synnott for teaching me how to become a better student, she taught me that reading slow is not a bad thing but that it will help me be a good active reader instead. She also told me that the way to being a good writer is reading more, that a person can develop different writing styles and how to provoke emotion in one’s writing.

            Writing personal papers have always came easy to me, except for the personal statement paper towards the end of my senior year. The assignment was to write about something that has truly shaped you whether it was a good or bad experience. I wrote about the day I got jumped my sophomore year in 2011, by these five girls. I was walking home one day after school and somehow my jacket fell from bag and I went back to go get it. I noticed it on the ground by a cross walk not too far from where I was already standing. As I was walking towards my jacket these girls looked at me weird and attacked me from behind. Although writing out all of the details in my paper was hard, my main points weren’t to receive pity for the incident, but why is it that kids turn to this type of violence and how someone can get right back up from it. Those girls simply took me down to take my phone and run. The police officer stated that they probably will sell it to someone for pocket change. By writing about the incident, it helped me build back up my confidence and made me realize that some people feel the need that they have to turn to such violence to get money because they may be having a hard time at home. The incident helped me to think differently about the outside world, but overall by writing the paper, it became a great outlet for me even though I wrote about it for a grade. It was so much more bigger and better than that for me.

            Reading and writing has definitely helped be in school because I had to read and write to pass. But after I graduate, I highly doubt that I will have to write any essay or read much except for my own personal doing. With my major, kinesiology, to become a P.E. teacher and basketball coach, I wouldn’t be required to write a research paper or do reading logs or anything like that. But I believe I will continue to read and write poems for their insight on a person’s life, whether it’s intentional or accidental or because it pertains to my own life. Writing for me is like telling a story with my words. With reading, it never came easy, but I worked at it and still am to improve myself as a student. Reading and writing has become an outlet and a form of therapy for me and even for some as well.