When I was
growing up I hated my English classes. I know hate is a strong word, but
believe me, I can think of plenty of other words that are far worst. I remember one time, my English teacher asked
me if English was my second language I guess because I am Asian and she didn’t
know that I was adopted when I was 7 months old. You can only imagine how that made me feel.
To be fair I never really had an interested in reading when I was a kid; I
remember struggling a lot. At one point I had to go to a reading lab before
school when I was younger and my dad would buy me reading and writing works
books for Christmas. He wanted me to do extra reading assignments during my
winter breaks. As I got older the more
bitter I became to reading and I remember always having this notion that people
who were into writing and literature had this kind of veil of ignorance around
them; that they were pompous and condescending. It wasn’t until I graduated
high school and joined the Navy I began to find a new appreciation in literature.
During my time in the Navy I’d go home
on leave a lot. Most of the time I’d travel by airplane. When in the airports,
I’d try to make an effort to buy a book that was being adapted into a movie. My
goal was trying to finish the book before I saw the movie…. I failed most of
the time. It was then I realized that reading wasn’t as bad as I made it out to
be. I think the fact that I didn’t have to write a report on the book or that
there wasn’t a time limit made it feel like more of a fun activity as suppose
of a chore. The more I read the easier it became to me, but I’d be lying if I
didn’t say that I had to reread sentences in the books or look up words. I
still struggled a lot but I think a big difference was that I wasn’t discouraged.
I didn’t care what anybody thought I was reading on my own time for my own
leisure.
Nowadays I try to even further
challenge myself and one of my biggest challenges was taking a college English
class. To be honest, I was fearful in the beginning because of my previous
track record with English, but at the same time excited too, because of my new
gained confidence in the subject. To my surprise, I actually really enjoyed
this class and my appreciation for literature even grew stronger. The “Ah-ha”
moments I truly enjoyed the most. It was fun reading something, that in the
past I would have thought it would be boring and get frustrated with, but now
reading it, I find it clever the way the author chooses their words and I
understand it faster. I noticed that especially with poetry, that’s why I
definitely enjoyed the poetry section most because of that, but also because it
allowed me to discover Wilfred Owens, a World War One Poet who I truly enjoy
reading. If I can take anything with me from this is class, it is that I will
more likely try to read books at aren’t always being adapted into a movie,
because I know now there is so much more out there and that honestly, poetry is
one of my favorite forms of writing. I think its the most skillful and clever
way to express yourself. Overall the class was an enjoyable experience.
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