For my “Who am I?” literacy narrative, I have finally sat down and given some thought to what I want my topic to be about. My senior year “literature and composition” class has affected how I approached literacy. I used to enjoy reading and writing but my English teacher/class ruined that for me. My exposition would be something around the idea of me joining my English class and being assigned summer work over “Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes.”  The book was a snooze fest and pretty challenging. My rising action would be trying to understand every little detail about the book, attempting to prepare for a test on the first day of school. I was starting to panic since I realized that there was no possible way for me to receive a grade that I wanted. I studied and studied but there was too much information to memorize in such a long book during such a short period of time. My rising action would also probably include taking the test on the first day of school and having no clue what any question was asking. The climax for my topic would be when I got my test score back (the test was online so I immediately got my score) and realizing that I failed!! It is embarrassing to say but I had a 64% (?) in the class for a few months. (not just me, almost the whole class failed). The falling action would be when I worked extremely hard every day to raise my grade. My grade started to increase with time. The resolution would be when I ended that same semester with a B. My hard work payed off! I think my conflicts were “person vs self” and “person vs person.” I was pretty tough on myself the whole semester and kept going back and forth between giving up and persevering on. I had high expectations for myself. I have never been so disappointed in my performance in a class before. “Person vs person” comes into play a little bit because my teacher had control over the test situation. Administration and my teacher talked about dropping all of the first test grades since everyone performed poorly but she did not budge with them at all. She held a bit of a grudge and was nasty to the majority of the people who did poorly on the test (me) and would constantly praise the select few who did well on the test. This lasted the whole semester and made it a living hell. I’m not exactly sure what my moment of truth would be. It could possibly be when I was making a choice between giving up and switching to a second class during second semester and pushing through. I found it in me to push through and became pretty motivated for the rest of my first semester.

Thinking back to my experience in various English classes, there is one that stands out to me. This class does not come to mind for a good reason either. I have never been a fan of any English class that I’ve attended. When it comes to reading and writing, I enjoy it when it’s in MY control. The idea of being forced to write an essay over a topic that I dislike or having to trudge through a boring book just because my teacher says so, bothers me. One of my most difficult classes that I have ever taken was my senior year literature and composition class. My teacher (who was as old a dinosaur) was the most unsympathetic lady that I have ever encountered. She was bossy, a hard grader, and loved to pile on the busy work. This teacher had so much practice at putting down students that you could tell she was a professional at it. I went into this classroom at 7:35 am every other day. She always came to class prepared with the nastiest attitude that she could create and she was ready to ruin your day before it even started. It wasn’t just the teacher that made this class so unbearable. When I walked into her room every other day, I had to mentally prepare myself for the migraine that I was going to obtain for the next few days. This lady was so obsessed with the smell of sugar cookies that she put in 4 new scented wax cubes into her wax burner each day. Mind you, 1 cube lasts me a couple of days. On top of the potent smell of sugar cookies, her room was also a maze. There was a clutter wherever you went. Even the surface of her desk was unorganized. It all makes sense to me now why so many of everyone’s assignments went missing. Trying to find your desk in the morning was like going through an obstacle course. You had to break a sweat while both trying to find your seat and while you sat at your seat. One of the things that bugged me the most about this room was that it was boiling hot. My teacher was an old lady which meant that the thermostat was going to be cranked up all the way or someone was going to get hurt. It was difficult to focus on completing work while you’re dripping in sweat. Even though the class had a handful of challenges, I got to read some nice books in there. I enjoyed “Dante’s Inferno,” “Hamlet,” and “Brave New World.” All three of those books kept me on my toes and made me eager to read the next chapter. Obviously, some of the chapters were a bit challenging and confusing but I pushed through them. It was nice to be reading those books with a small group of students so that I could ask any questions that I had about the text. Receiving a decent grade in the class took a lot of time and hard work. I was constantly studying, reading, or writing. I send good luck to any seniors in that class right now.

When it comes to the process of crafting an essay, I’d say that I am a pretty “traditional” writer. Typically, I enjoy making diagrams and filling my paper with various ideas and topics that I have. I only spend a few minutes working on this until I move on to drafting. During drafting, I try to write any thoughts I have that are related to the topic. I draft out my introduction, body, and conclusion paragraphs. I don’t waste a lot of time thinking of a “perfect” word or phrase that I should include. This process can take anywhere from an hour or longer to complete. My favorite step that follows drafting is editing my paper. I give myself a break between the two. When it comes to editing, I will always be the first person to edit my paper. If I feel that it is necessary, I will allow a friend or two to look over my writing to offer me tips. I mark my paper for incorrect grammar and spelling and will substitute old sentences out for cleaner ones. Sometimes, I will rewrite all of my paragraphs if they are shaky. Editing is the lengthiest process of them all since I tend to change every little detail of my writing. Once I complete editing, I write out my final draft. Before I turn in my paper, I reread my writing and check for any final errors or ideas that I want to fix. I then pass my paper on to some more friends for one last check through. If I am pleased with how my essay turned out, I submit it.