Coming from a family with practically no educational expectations, it's surprising where I am today. From a family of drop outs, flunkees, and hard workers, no one really expected much from any child in our family. No one cared for or even tried in school. And then, I was born...the different one, the turn around of our family, the only one EVERYONE had the HIGHEST expectations for..
I don't really remember learning to read, except that no one pushed me to learn anything as an open-minded toddler. Learning my ABC's, to count, or to read early were all my own workings with only my determination. If there was anybody who even microscopically helped me learn to read was my grandmother "Gin Gan Linda." She was always a big reader, with her own library in her apartment. She had shelves upon shelves of the enormous romance novels (which she never let me look at) then she had a smaller library in her back room, full of all kinds of magical children's books from Dr. Sues to Clifford the Big Red Dog. One day, while my grandmother was reading her book, I decided that I wanted to be like my grandmother and grabbed some easy to read book about different types of animals. I proudly carried my book and set myself upon the couch next to her and began to 'read' along with her.
Throughout my early school years I surprisingly surpasses my piers. I was already capable of reading the easy to read children's books with hardly no help, if not any at all. My first few teachers had even allowed me to help my fellow classmates with learning to read some words that they did not understand. I enjoyed reading books as a young child, the stories were always magical and seem to be more interesting than any person's life that I had known. I often fantasized about my life, being like that as the characters of these stories. I would enjoy reading the stories so much, I would come home and offer to read to my older brother, dad, and my pregnant mom. I thought that the baby would be able to hear me reading to her and would encourage her to take on reading early.
I've always read at a higher reading level than my class. When we started reading for AR in elementary school, I always read a few grade levels above my grade. I enjoyed it, not having to worry so much about reading grades, I was always top of the class, even in the top few percentage of our entire school.
I started off reading the famous Junie B. Jones series. I absolutely loved that series. I finished every book of the series early in the school year, and had no idea what I would do for the rest of the year. I remember worryingly exclaiming to my teacher "What am I going to do now? There's nothing to read! I've read all the books!" She just laughed and told me about all the other wonderful books there were to read. I then came along to find the Magic Tree house book series. I instantly fell for the story. I envied how young the children were, and being able to travel where and whenever in time they could.
As I grew older, I enjoyed reading the higher leveled, more complex books. From the Harry Potter series to The Chronicles of Narnia I enjoyed reading about the magical, fantasy world, however I didn't really have a favorite genre of books. Then, I found books based from medical professions. They instantly hooked me, from the cancer survival books, to the veterinarian books, I loved every single one. The stories that were based on real life events and over coming life's struggles always seemed to interest me the most.
Instead of struggling through everything, like my family has, I am easily passing through school, without putting forth any effort. Although I have long out-grown my passion for reading, I still enjoy a good book every now and again.
