Literacy Autobiography

It is an interesting thought to ponder of how you became the writer you are. I always just lumped my writing experiences together into an “I’m a pretty decent writer,” thought. It never even crossed my mind that they kind of writer I am can be explained by my childhood experiences. I never thought that the kind of writer I am was actually determined in elementary school. It is hard to imagine that if I had actually thought about these experiences and realized what they meant, I perhaps would have found journalism and public relations 3 years earlier than I did.

I remember learning how to write with famous “Johnny Can Spell” in the 1st grade. I remember the bright orange construction paper books we put together that would be where we learned how to write the alphabet. I remember its boring monotony of writing these same curly letters over and over again. I actually remember dreading that part of the morning when we had to “Johnny Can Spell.”

When I think of when my writing career began, my mind immediately flows to the 4th grade Benchmark test. The assignment was to describe the picture given as detailed as possible. The picture was of a Native American girl with a bear. I have always been good about following the rules so I did what I was asked to do and described this picture’s every inch. When I received the grade of 4+, (I thought 4 was the highest given) a sense of accomplishment and confidence swept across me. Although I always got good grades, school was difficult for me and it felt amazing that I got the highest marks on something I thought was easy.

In 5th grade I found that although I had promising writing abilities, they were limited. As a class assignment we were asked to create some fictional story. My creative writing mind was not funny or clever, but just plain weird. When I asked the teacher how to spell “Robinson Caruso’s recipe” and the confused facial expression she gave me in response, I knew that creating fictional stories was not my forte. In 2nd grade, any type of creative writing is praised because we are just learning how to be creative. When you enter higher levels, a more advanced creativeness is expected. I just seemed to have left mine in the 2nd grade.

As I progressed through the school system, my writing was mediocre. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. It wasn’t until my sophomore year in high school that I did one of my best works that I am still proud of to this day. It was a true story involving my dad in an almost fatal accident. I titled it “Superman’s Fall” because when you are a kid, you see your dad as Superman. (I think that is so clever and a clever moment like that has yet to grace me.) This paper won the best out of my class.

That was the last triumphant writing moment I had until 5 years later. 5 years later I was a second year freshman in college trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I told an advisor I enjoyed writing and he told me the best way to figure out if I had a future in writing was to take news writing. Sure enough, I found my niche, my place, my style of writing. Like I said earlier, I was always good at following the rules. I was always scared not to. This type of personality of mine reflects in my writing. I was never a creative, fiction type writer because that is not the personality I have. My style of writing is of writing about true events. I truly excel in writing when I feel passionately or strongly about what I am writing; like my father’s story or the countless feature articles I have written.

It never would have occurred to me in a million years that the experiences we had with writing as children were clues as to what kind of writer we are. It actually gives me a sense of relief knowing that what I am doing now with writing and my life makes sense based on these past experiences. It is also a relief to know that just because I am not that kind of creative, fiction type writer (and I wish I was), doesn’t mean that I am not a good writer. There are many different kinds of writers and you don’t have to be good at all of them to be considered good yourself.