Literacy Narrative:Reading Is for My Life

Introduction: The literacy narrative is written in my sophomore year. The purpose of it is making point. It has 4 stages: orientation, complication, revolution, and coda.

Reading, as well as smiling, eating and speaking, was one of the primary things I have learned as a baby. I started to read at the age of 3. My parents handed me a magazine with colorful pictures to stop me crying. I stared at the cover curiously. I still remember it was a kangaroo, as a cartoon character, that it was greeting me with a friendly smile. I was charmed at that moment and my reading journey began. Books were my companions. While other girls were playing their beautiful dolls, I was reading a beautiful fairy tale book. I enjoyed every picture in my fairy tale books although I did not learn all of the words. Every time when my mom took me to the bookstore, I would choose my favorite picture books and read them for hours. Although at that time, my “reading” was “looking through” all pictures, I found reading appealing and interesting.

When I was at primary school, I learned words and sentences. I began to choose storybooks to read. There were many storybooks with pinyin intended to primary school kids, like me. My favorite storybook was entitled 100 stories of Disney Princesses. It was a storybook for little girls, but I would like to recommend all girls to read it. Like other young girls, I desired to be a princess who can live in the palace, marry a prince and have a perfect life. Before reading, I had dreamed of how pretty I would be and how happy the life I would have many times. Luckily, The 100 stories of Disney Princesses was an opening door of valuable knowledge. It told me that every girl can be a princess in reality if she has a beautiful heart. The important lesson changed my life. I began to be kind, warmhearted and friendly to others. Hence, learning new things was the most interesting part in the process of reading. It influenced me and change my personalities.

Additionally, I got some practical reading skills in the process. Once I got a confusion in the life, I would find the answer in books. When a new confusion appeared in the reading, I would ask another book for help. Reading was my way to explore the new world. Thus, I read all the genre. Fiction, tales, poetry, and history stories. I enjoyed all of them.

When I grew up, I found reading became meaningful to me. It was great that my middle school teachers listed helpful books and suggested us to read them. Those books talked about successful stories, great men or women, desirable personalities and encouraging legends. Those were related to my own life. Every time when I confronted the difficulties or failure, I would think about the characters in the books, like Hellen Keller or Pavel Korchagin. Through reading, I learned that many people suffered tough lives but I was a lucky one. Hence, those books became a guide of my life. I got lessons from books. I was “addicted” on reading. Reading was an integral part of my life.

I did not stop reading until I came into high school. High school was totally new to me. In the first year, I received sufficient textbooks. Chinese, math, English, Chinese history, geography, politics, physics, chemistry, and biology. They were piled on my desk just like a mountain. Apparently, I had to do a plenty of reading afterward.

At first, I was glad because I could get more chances to read. I carried all my textbooks to my dorm. Every day after class, I rushed to my dorm and began my reading. The new knowledge was interesting but was hard to be understood. Although I was puzzled by abstract concepts sometimes, I still felt happy when I immersed myself into reading.

After several days of reading, I confronted my first Chinese exam. The exam was based on the Chinese textbook I read. It was the time to text my reading achievement. Thus, I took the exam confidently and wrote all of my understanding about what I read. When I was waiting for the result with a high expectation, I got a message from my Chinese teacher. She asked me to her office and wanted to talk with me. I was shocked and puzzled. Nervously, I came to her. “Why did you write down your own understanding?” she handed me my paper and asked with anger. I took my paper and saw a big false mark on it. “Is anything wrong?” I was totally confused. “Those are not correct answers. Follow the sample answers I gave you in the class! ” She yelled at me.

Sample answers? I suddenly recalled the class she gave us that day. She showed us an exam question in her PowerPoint and told us, “If you want to get the full mark in your exam, you’d better write your answer like this.” Then, she showed the answer proudly and suggested us to take a note. I felt disappointed with her answer. It was long, dull and thoughtless. I believed my own understanding, in accordance with my reading experiences, was better than hers.

However, I had to give in. I was not supposed to fight against my teacher. I had to memorize the sample answers so that I could get a high grade in my Chinese exam. I still kept reading, but a negative emotion came to me. I was annoyed by my suborned teacher and my interest in reading was waning. I felt uncomfortable when reading textbooks. I was eager to share my own understanding with others, but nobody cared about my personal opinions. Everyone paid his or her attention to exams. They read only for the exams. Was reading interesting in this way? I can find an answer.

I was lost.

What’s worse, I was busier than before in study. I did not have time to do extra readings. I spent most of my time on reading textbooks, finishing my homework and dealing with my exams. School study took up my whole life. In tandem with it, my “dear” teachers gave out multiple reading materials every class. They were full of academic theories and boring texts. I was pushed to memorize the materials point by point, but I did not understand them completely. Every day, I was buried in a pile of papers and forced myself to “fall in love with” them. Ironically, I did not even have ideas about why I should do a reading in the dullest way in my life.

That year, I was 15. It was the time when I was going through a physical and mental change. I was curious about love and sex, life and death, hip-pop, and bar culture, but my life was full of study. I was eager to get the knowledge from books. I desired to do my own reading and exploring. Hence, I secretly bought a fiction in a newsstand after school. However, I did not have any time and chance to read it. After the middle exam, my headmaster began to make a dorm investigation and confiscate irrelevant books. As a result, I was “arrested”.

In his office, my headmaster shouted at me. “Can you explain the fiction?” It was the second time I made an office visit due to my “reading problem”. “It is a fiction about a girl and a boy. They fell in love…”I tried to say it calmly. He shook his bald head like a ring bell and interrupt me, “No! Keep working hard!” Then, my poor fiction was thrown into the trash bin. This time, I was provoked. “I do not want to read stupid textbooks and materials anymore! It is not a reading! It is a torture!” My headmaster stared at me astonishingly, just like looking at an unknown creature. “I think you have no idea about what you are talking,” he said disdainfully. “You can do whatever you want after you get good grades.” “I did not read only for my grades!” I thought furiously and left his office.

Afterward, I changed myself completely. I lost my enthusiasm with the reading. When I read my textbooks, the bad memories of boring study, horrible exams, and warming of my teachers flashed in my mind. The textbooks reminded me of my terrible reading experiences. I began to feel sick when I picked up a textbook. That was not the worst thing. Gradually, I found that even though I had time to choose my favorite book, I did not have the interest to read anymore. My personal emotion influenced my reading desire. I began to hate reading.

It was a tough time. After a month, I did not go to the bookstore and library anymore. I cleaned all the books at home. I began to hang out instead of doing homework. Consequently, I failed all my exams. What’s worse, I gave up reading totally. Books lost their roles in my life.

I wonder what I could do to overcome the situation. My father gave me a suggestion. “Maybe it is time to try other things.” He told me. I could not believe what I heard. “You mean I can give up reading and do something else?” I asked. “Not exactly. You should try to do something to arouse your desire of reading.” He answered. Although I still doubted it, I accepted his advice.

Firstly, I chose to do something else to forget my disappointing experience. I took a road trip, joined a club, listened to music and began to watch TV series. One day, I noticed a new Chinese drama entitled “Legend of Zhenhuan”. It was a story about a Chinese princess in the Qing dynasty. I took a week to finish watching it. I found the ancient culture in Qing dynasty was so mysterious and appealing. However, the drama was only a made-up story. I wanted to know more about this real-time history. At that moment, I craved to read. It was thirst I recognized.

In the next several days, I quenched my thirst in the library. I began with famous characters in the Qing dynasty. Queen Cixi, the only female authority in Qing government, was a key figure in the Qing dynasty. I collected many biography books about her. Through her life story, I knew the different customs, circumstance, and policies in Qing. I also read several comments about her. Someone adored her while others condemned her work. She was very similar with the foreign female authorities, such as the former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher or the Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel.

Gradually, I re-fell in love with reading. I found the answer to a question: why do I read? I used to believe that I should read for study, getting progress, a good school, and a good job. However, I finally realized I read for myself all the time. I rejected boring reading and intended reading. I felt happy when I enjoyed what I was reading. My reading is for my life.