I wasn't the biggest reader in elementary school. I read only because I had to, unlike some of my friends who read for fun. The only book I remember reading in elementary school that had nothing to do with school was the screenplay Harry Potter and The Cursed Child, and that's not exactly an actual book.
In 7th grade my focus shifted a little. I somehow got my hands on a dystopian romance novel called Matched. I remember coming home from school, getting my book, and sitting down on the couch in the living room to read. When my mom entered the room, I said, “Look mom! I’m reading! And it’s not for school!” I was so proud of myself for reading of my own free will. I considered it a big achievement.
This was only the beginning of my reading journey. When I finished that one I read the next one in the series. I found myself to be a big fan of the library and always having a book checked out. I remember reading the Pretty Little Liars series because I liked the show. I got most of them from the library, and the ones I couldn't get there I bought on my phone. I got through 9 of the 16 books before calling it good.
I had a lot of time to read in 7th and 8th grade because those were my awkward, shy, loner years. I lost most of my friends because I just couldn't figure out how to fit in or talk to people. This made turning to books even more compelling. There was always some adventure I could be involved in.
Throughout 8th grade, I spent lunch in the homework lunch room. Technically people go there if their teacher sends them to do homework or a makeup test. I went because it felt safer than the cafeteria. Everyone in there was doing work. Any day the homework lunch room was closed was a dreaded day. I would have to walk into the cafeteria and find somewhere to sit.
That was a big year for reading in my life. Discovering this passion made me read all the time. I decided to read books that big movies were based off of. I read the hunger games series, Divergent, Maze Runner, and drum roll….. Harry Potter!
I’ve been a fan of Harry Potter since I saw the movies when I was young. I tried to read the book in 6th grade but It took me ages. I was such a slow reader and didnt feel like I comprehended the content. My main basis was the movies. I changed that the second I felt like I had the ability to. Finally reading Harry Potter, the thing I've always liked, made me feel capable of doing things I put my mind to.
On top of my increased love of reading, I started to love English. The entirety of 8th grade standard English was one of the best classes I’ve ever taken. First of all, I liked the teacher. Not everyone did, but I did.
Our first unit of the year was the hero's journey. We had to pick a book to read and analyze the hero's journey within it. I read Alex Rider because the librarian had talked about it and it sounded interesting. In hindsight, I could have just used Harry Potter for this, but hey, I branched out! It was really interesting looking at how the journey of heroes is supposed to be structured.
Our next unit was about Utopias and Dystopias. Most of the books I was reading that year (hunger games, divergent, maze runner) were dystopian. I just didn't realize that's what they were until this unit. It turns out dystopian is probably one of my favorite genres, especially when there is romance involved (like Matched). For this unit, we read The Giver. I’d never read it before, but I found I loved it. The Giver remains my favorite book I’ve ever read for school. I’ve been wanting to read it again, I just haven't gotten to it because my to-be-read list is so long.
Our 3rd unit was about the Holocaust. This was, at first, because we were learning about history in an English class. I’ve never really been a history buff, but I actually really liked learning about it in English. The class was split into groups and each group got their own book to read based in the time of the Holocaust. I also read The Diary Anne Frank during this period and found her story very compelling.
On the last day of 8th grade, the last day of middle school, we had an all school assembly. I noticed my parents there which was odd. Every year the English department gets to pick one standard English student and one Honors English student to receive an award. My teacher chose me to be the standard English student. I got an award with my name on it and a cute little sprinkle notebook.
This really was a turning point for me. Not only did I have so much fun in class that year, someone noticed my hard work. I wasn’t even doing the best in that class at the beginning of the year but my teacher, Mrs Jarvis, saw the effort I put in.
While English 9 was disappointing, English 10 was great. We did a lot of cool things in that class: making resumes and reading Born A Crime. By far, the best project was the memoir. We were to pick 3 events in our lives that were impactful and show who we are and how we got to where we are. One of my go-to stories of my life is the time I was left alone at my grandma’s house in kindergarten. As you might imagine, it was quite traumatizing. I’d written a little about this event in the past, but for this project I mustered every single detail I could recall.
I’ve written narratives before this for class, even one I wrote for myself. In 2019, I got to go to Emerald City Comic Con, where I met Rupert Grint and Finn Wolfhard. In short, it was a magical day. I wanted to remember the details of that day forever so I decided to write a narrative about it. Did it take me 4 months to write? That’s beyond the point. When I finally finished the draft, I printed the entire thing out and grabbed a red pen. I wanted to be like one of those writers you see on tv revising their work with a red pen. You should have seen it, the entire thing was red. I actually still have it at home.
I decided comic con could be one of the events for the memoir, since it was significant and I already had 12 pages of content to work with. Obviously it couldn't be that much for just one story. It was extremely detailed anyway for my own sake. I cut the 12 pages to about 5 and a half. My entire memoir ended up being 15 pages, 12 point font, 1.15 spacing.
One thing I wanted to do with this project was make it really me, which means ‘extra’. Each of the events had its own ‘chapter’. For example, my second chapter being about the English award, was titled: Golden.
I was very proud of my memoir. I wanted everyone to read it. However not everyone wants to read 15 pages about me. Crazy, I know. I ended up recording myself reading it and I played it to all my friends.
To say the least, I've found that I really like writing and reading. Writing is especially fun when it involves the ‘write what you know’ sentiment. I've always had story ideas but I remember thinking as a kid ‘I wish i could get someone to write this story for me, but the exact way I want it told.’ Now I just say ‘If I want to tell a story, I'll tell it myself because I'm highly capable of it.’
I still love to read today, it's one of my favorite things to do in my free time, second to tv. English has done a lot in shaping who I am and what I want to do. My dream is to write a book and I know that I can get there.
*This was an assignment for english
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