Personal Essay: My History with English
Zane Davis
I am a 23 year old who is going back to school for my first time in 7 years. English is one of the courses I signed up for, not only because it is a requirement, but I see it as a necessity. For me to be successful in college and whatever career I choose, I believe adequate reading and writing skills is important. My history with reading and writing has definitely had its ups and downs throughout my life. I learned to read and write at a young age. There are a lot of people in my family who are educators. My grandparents who both taught for the Beaumont school district would read with me and teach me to write whenever I would visit them, which was often. Throughout early elementary school I remember reading and writing coming relatively really easy to me due to my upbringing. I even read books outside of school that were not homework, and enjoyed them so much that I once got in trouble for reading in class while I was supposed to be doing a different assignment. One of the books that I read outside of school, and was interested in, was the harry potter series. Its story line and intense descriptions really fascinated me. I continued reading those through middle school, even when I was supposed to be reading a different book for an assignment in one of my English classes. But the books I was required to read in school didn’t interest me like that one did. I would tell myself I would start reading the other book as soon as I finished the next chapter, but that never happened due to me reading until I fell asleep. If I couldn’t pay attention to my assigned readings I would read the back of the book the day my assignment was due, and fake my way through the essay or test. Surprisingly that worked for me for a while until I reached junior high. I have never been a strong reader. If what I’m reading is not interesting to me, and even sometimes if I am interested, I will constantly have to reread pages and paragraphs due to my mind wondering. I am
I am a 23 year old who is going back to school for my first time in 7 years. English is one of the courses I signed up for, not only because it is a requirement, but I see it as a necessity. For me to be successful in college and whatever career I choose, I believe adequate reading and writing skills is important. My history with reading and writing has definitely had its ups and downs throughout my life. I learned to read and write at a young age. There are a lot of people in my family who are educators. My grandparents who both taught for the Beaumont school district would read with me and teach me to write whenever I would visit them, which was often. Throughout early elementary school I remember reading and writing coming relatively really easy to me due to my upbringing. I even read books outside of school that were not homework, and enjoyed them so much that I once got in trouble for reading in class while I was supposed to be doing a different assignment. One of the books that I read outside of school, and was interested in, was the harry potter series. Its story line and intense descriptions really fascinated me. I continued reading those through middle school, even when I was supposed to be reading a different book for an assignment in one of my English classes. But the books I was required to read in school didn’t interest me like that one did. I would tell myself I would start reading the other book as soon as I finished the next chapter, but that never happened due to me reading until I fell asleep. If I couldn’t pay attention to my assigned readings I would read the back of the book the day my assignment was due, and fake my way through the essay or test. Surprisingly that worked for me for a while until I reached junior high. I have never been a strong reader. If what I’m reading is not interesting to me, and even sometimes if I am interested, I will constantly have to reread pages and paragraphs due to my mind wondering. I am