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.
