♪ Literacy narrative - Jaden Henley

Title: Literacy narrative
Full Transcript: The speaker reflects on their experiences with writing, both positive and negative. They explain that in middle school and high school, they didn't care about writing and only did it because they had to. However, as they got older, they began to appreciate writing as a way to express themselves and set goals. They give examples of how writing has helped them, such as using it to push themselves closer to their dreams and as an escape to understand themselves better. They also mention that some teachers made writing tedious and not enjoyable, leading to a lack of effort and connection with the writing. The speaker concludes by emphasizing the importance of finding a personal connection to writing and how it can positively impact one's life. When it comes to writing, I've had a lot of good things and a lot of not-so-good or bad experiences, if you would say. I mainly think it's because of the times I never really understood the reasoning behind writing and how important it was. My worst experiences with writing have come within some of the happiest years of my life, so far, which is between middle school and high school, where I never really cared to write. I was just doing it because I had to. I had to get it done. It was just all school, which honestly had no meaning to me. Now, let's truly dive into my experiences through the years, not only my lows with writing but my highs as well. Around the ages of 7 to about 13, I had writing assignments and essays that I felt I could connect with on a personal level, and it really meant something to me. But there wasn't a specific essay that really opened my eyes to why I liked writing until I was about 16 years old. Now, I can say I liked writing and found it satisfying and pleasing, and an interesting thing to keep in mind is when I was younger, I didn't know why I liked writing. I just found it satisfying, but as I got older, I liked writing because it's a way I find myself expressing myself or even just keeping my mind at ease. I also find myself writing to just set goals for myself in a way of speaking them into existence. An experience to truly represent, this is me right now where I currently play basketball at the University of Minnesota. I wrote throughout high school and as a young kid about playing high major basketball, so it feels good to know that I can express myself through my writing and use it to push me closer to my dreams. Not physically, but mentally. But another situation I went through in high school was my senior year when we had to write an essay slash letter type of document about what advice you would give yourself going into high school, and it wasn't about school. It was about life in general, meaning the emotions, the experiences, and the stress. And I feel that after writing this essay, I really found it as an escape and an outlet to understand who I am in a way. To simplify my bad experiences with writing, mainly pertained and occurred throughout my eighth grade to about sophomore year of high school. My time when I found writing dumb is mainly because of the teachers I had made the writing not fun anymore. They made writing a task and just something you had to get done, whether it was like a research paper or an informative essay. It was always tedious and I just was never happy writing within these times. Through these times of writing, my mindset was always just to get it done so you don't have to worry about it. Most of the time, I was never really trying on it. It was just doing it to pass, and at the time, I didn't see the problem, but now I see the problem. And honestly, I think the worst was my freshman year when I had an informative essay about why going to college is a good thing. It was just all over the place, and I was miserable having to write this because I just got to high school, and he was making me think about college, and in my head, I was just thinking, I don't know right now. I don't think a lot did. So while writing this, I never felt a connection with the writing. I never cared. I just put whatever and did pretty much the bare minimum, which I hate. To bring this all together, I want to say that every experience I have had with writing has opened my eyes in many different ways, and I think that people need to understand how serious writing is and how much it can change your life if you put yourself in the right perspective. Writing for me has helped with my mentality through life, simply because I'm writing everything that's going on through my head, whether good or bad, and reflecting on those writings helped me as a person. And me personally, I have realized if I can't make a serious connection to my writing, then it just never goes smoothly, and as it doesn't get done with real effort, it also feels like you are cheating yourself. But that's me. I think everyone needs to find what helps them make a connection to their writing.
From Soundboard: Jaden Henley
Format: MP3
Length: 277 seconds
Plays: 1 play
Downloads: 0 downloads
Uploaded: August 2nd 2024
Auto Transcribed: No