Carrie, I enjoyed writing this essay more than writing most.

However, like every essay that I write have had struggles writing this one. One of my struggles was that I felt like I had some trouble trying to not ramble on and to stay focused. I wanted to tell my story but not try and write a play by play. The feedback that I would like to hear would be how to reign in my ramblings and put them towards the better purpose. The goal I struggled with was e ploring other aspects of literacy because I felt like I wrote it in my essay awkwardly and randomly. I could not seem to figure out how to include it and making it flow. !incerely, "icaela #lowers

$ersonal %iteracy &arrative 'veryone has the general idea of the meaning of literacy and that it is the ability to read and write. However, the meaning of literacy goes so much deeper. 'very individual has their own level of literacy. There are also many types of literacies such as different languages, technology, mathematics, even barcodes can be used to communicate. Overall I believe that the definition of literacy is how a person interprets their own world(s way of communication. I think that a person(s literacy changes and grows with them as a person. #or e ample a first graders literacy is not the same as a graduate student(s. %iteracy is always constantly changing and everyone has their own personal literacy story to tell. I, like most people, consider myself a very literate person. However, I think that my reading literacy level e ceeds my writing literacy level by far. )ith reading, understanding the theme and meaning always came very easily. I think that this is because reading is technical, a person either knows how to read and interpret the letters on a page or they do not. *eading in itself as an ability does not re+uire critical thinking and it is just mechanical almost. %earning the mechanics of reading comes first and then the thinking about what the words mean comes ne t. On the other hand, with writing I feel like the process is backwards, you must first come up with critical thinking and then relay it to words. I always felt like I had to force the words onto the page and even then my work was not up to par. *eading and writing both re+uire a person to interpret the piece in their own way to make it relatable. *eading begins to differ with writing when, with writing, you have to be able to formulate those thoughts and ideas in your head into words that can be put on a page. I think that is why I struggle the most with writing, because the ideas are in my head but I cannot convey them to the paper.

"ost of my memories of writing are cast in a negative light. )hen I was in ,indergarten and I was meeting my teacher, for the very first time, my first words to her were -.m I going to be in trouble because I cannot read or write very well/0 .t the time I suppose my parents and I had not really worked on reading and writing and that was more of a skill saved for learning ,indergarten. I remember working so hard that whole year to shape the letters perfectly and to fit sentences together. %ike most people, I think that the first word that I wrote was probably my name or in my case it might have been -dog0 considering that was the first word I spoke and I always had an intense fascination with them. 'veryone has to start somewhere with their literacy and I think that that is where I started with mine. #ast forwarding to the first grade I remember struggling so hard trying not to write letters backwards because I am left1 handed, or in other words another negative connation with the act of writing. 2eing a left1 handed little girl trying to learn in a significantly right1 handed environment it was hard. The teacher was right1 handed and as someone who learns more from watching and first hand e perience it was really difficult for me to learn from her. I think that the most negative memory I have of writing comes from the fourth grade when we were practicing for the state writing test that year. One day, my teacher pulled me out of class to talk and I had no idea why. !he asked me if I knew how to make paragraphs or indent and I was beyond embarrassed when I reali3ed I did not know how to do either properly. #rom that moment every time I wrote something I had this nagging feeling that something really wrong was going on in my paper. To this day I feel like my ability to right -good0 essays, as in material, is inade+uate despite the decent grades I do make on the papers. I think that it has affected me as a writer because I am sometimes afraid to give my all in the chance of failure. I feel like I have become a better writer over the years but I am still not a confident writer and I am not sure if I will ever be one. 'very event in my life that has lead up to

my current literacy ability has made an impact. #rom my first days as a weary ,indergartener to through the continuation of my life, each event has built on itself. "y confidence as a reader has always increased and my lack of confidence as a writer has decreased slightly as I have gotten more aware of how to write. Today, I still consider myself a more advanced reader than writer. However, I do not possess the sheer terror for papers that I used to. The other half of literacy, reading, has never been an issue for me. I have always loved to read. )ith reading, the knowledge comes to you, the author can bring anything imaginable right to your brain. *eading is like a portal to any world you want to go to. I began reading as soon as I could. In the second grade I was one of the few students granted the opportunity to read Harry $otter books because of my ability. I still remember to this day how good that felt. I continued reading and reading and reading. I would always go to the library in search of new books and whenever the book fair came along it was like Christmas. *eading for fun has helped me interpret and understand assigned reading in school. However, there have been times where I have not been able to gain interest in an assigned booked and I have fallen back on sources like !park &otes or the internet. I like to stick mostly to fiction books but I do like history. 2ooks that are classic favorites are a lot of times the e act ones I do not want to read, for e ample, Their 'yes )ere )atching 4od and The 4reat 4atsby 56es I am probably the one person who did not enjoy reading this book.7Those times with !park &otes are when I +uestion my reading skills because books8 authors that use different dialects or wordings 5i.e. "ark Twain or !hakespeare7 and it is harder to comprehend. I feel like through reading my vocabulary has e panded and I feel more intelligent and confident when I speak. $art of literacy is verbal communication, you cannot speak, or rather you should not speak, unless you know the definition of the words you are saying. %earning new words while reading using skills like conte t clues can translate to a

person(s verbal actions. In high school I took .dvanced $lacement 'nglish classes my 9unior and !enior years. 2oth of these classes took in depth looks in reading pieces8 novels. )e read all types of pieces from memoirs to novels to poems. )e had to write about each piece multiple times in different ways. I think that this made me have to force my thoughts onto the paper from my head because if I did not the assignment would not be done and the grade I wanted would not have been met. I still do not think that I am the best at that but my skills definitely increased after going through those courses. )hen I put my writing and reading literacies together to write essays with prompts I am usually able to clearly see what the prompt is asking for and what needs to be written. However, when I go to transfer my thoughts and ideas to the paper I just cannot seem to do it most of the time. I think that part of it is wording but part of it is probably my lack of confidence in what I have to say even though I usually am really good at seeing an author(s message. I find myself being able to write certain types of papers better than others. History essays are usually easy for me because there is a definite, factual response and it is right or wrong with no grey margin. )hereas, literacy essays are usually a lot more open ended and I find myself getting off topic more easily. 'ven essays like this where there are not necessarily right or wrong answers I struggle because I am more comfortable with the realms of structure. This my own personal -world(s0 communication because I am not comfortable without structure whereas that might be the realm that some my strive in. Once again, to each their own. .long my literacy path I have also gained new literacies as I have grown older. #or e ample, I am able to communicate in all sorts of other ways. )hen I go to football games I am able to tell that lingo apart from lingo used at a baseball game. .t school there are so many literacies just between subjects. 'ach language in itself is a new literacy. I even use barcodes

weekly to be told that my laundry is ready. %ooking at literacy in this way, as a personal interpretation of one(s own world, I think can make anyone more confident because they can assess their strengths and weaknesses together. 9ust because a person may not think that they can write very well they might be able to decipher twenty other parts of literacy very well. These different types of literacies have shaped my view of literacy because I have reali3ed that I do not understand certain literacies where other people might. This has left me to conclude that literacy is based on each individual person and cannot sum groups of people. Overall, I think that literacy is always personal. &o two people have the same e act version of literacy. %iteracy is shaped by your environment and how you are raised. Therefore no one has the same story to tell. "y literacy has constantly evolved. I feel like my reading and writing skills are always improving and that there is always room to improve. %ike I stated before there are so many literacies as well so there is always a new one to be learned.