Literature Autobiography

Reading and writing came easily to me when I was growing up because it was something I enjoyed. I enjoyed reading fiction books and writing fictitious stories. I guess I always enjoyed being able to escape through reading and writing. If I had the opportunity to read a really good book, I was able to completely lose myself in it; reading for hours and hours at one time. My mom is the one who influenced me the most in this area. She was constantly reading, so naturally it made me want to read too. It helped that she knew which books I might like and could recommend some for me to read. My love for reading lead to my love for writing. I loved reading captivating books, so when I was young I thought I would try to create some stories on my own. This affinity towards reading and writing at an early age is from my mom mostly, but I also enjoyed reading and writing short stories in school. In elementary school I was always good at coming up with stories to write or reading for the Accelerated Reader program. I liked reading and writing because it was something I enjoyed doing in my free time, but it also came easy to me so it didn’t frustrate me like other subjects did.
I don’t remember one specific teacher in elementary school that impacted my love for reading and writing, but I do remember one teacher in middle school. My seventh grade language arts teacher is one teacher I will always remember. She was very challenging, but patient and nice. She pushed every student to do better. I don’t think I ever learned so much in one year than I did from that teacher. I always enjoyed reading and writing, but my seventh grade teacher made me feel good about my reading and writing skills. She gave me the confidence to do better in the future.
Like many others I’m sure, my love for reading and writing diminished every year as it got progressively harder through high school and college. I still love to read in my free time, but I rarely get the chance to. Throughout high school and college reading and writing became more of a chore than a leisure activity. I had to read and write so much for school I didn’t get to do it for enjoyment anymore. That is when reading and writing started to have a negative connotation to me. I began to associate the things I used to love with deadlines and guidelines. I can’t read a book for pleasure without trying to find the underlying meaning or themes threaded throughout the book. When I read a book for pleasure, which is rare these days, it reminds me why I used to love reading so much. As a teacher in the future I need to keep these experiences in mind. I hope that I can try to make reading and writing an enjoyable experience for my students so they don’t dislike them or become discouraged at an early age.