Through the Pages of My Life...
A journey through my reading history. -James Laughlin
Once upon a time, in a land not so far way, there lived a little boy with one passion, a passion for reading...
Okay, the "land" was Shelby, North Carolina, and the little boy was me. However, it is true that I fell in love with reading at an early age. I was exposed to reading before my schooling began by my mom reading to me every night before I went to bed. This was mostly in the form of Bible stories. One of my favorites was the story of Noah and the Ark.
Eventually, I enrolled in Pre-K at Twelve Oaks Christian Academy in Shelby. This was a small school with few students and only three teachers to teach grades Pre-K through twelfth grade! I was blessed with the opportunity to have Mrs. Bettie Upton as my teacher for grades Pre-K through second grade. Mrs. Upton was an amazing woman with a passion for teaching and an overwhelming love for children.
A year later, I entered Kindergarten under the tutelage of Mrs. Upton. As the year progressed, we worked on phonics, sight words, and forming basic sentences. As we worked on these things, Mrs. Upton took notice that I was advancing faster than the other students and seemed to get bored with the basic stuff we were working on, so she gave me a basic book with some basic sentences and had me practice it every night. Eventually, I mastered this book and was ready to advance in my reading. By Christmas, I was able to read full length books and even beginner novels. The very first book I ever read was The Cat in the Hat. I read it at our school's Christmas program in front of all of the parents.
As time progressed, I advanced in reading ability and ability to comprehend what I was reading. This culminated to the end of my Kindergarten year when I took a standardized test that evaluated my reading level. (Not sure of the name, though.) When the results came back, my result was that I was reading on the fifth-grade level!
After this, my reading ability and comprehension continued to improve and expand. Two of the major driving forces behind this were two of my aunts: my aunt Brenda and my aunt Trena. Both of these amazing ladies were teachers, my aunt Trena was an elementary school teacher and my aunt Brenda was a high school English teacher. Through this combination of mastery in the field of education, they supported the information I was learning from my teachers and helped me improve my skills. They worked with me and pushed me to further my ability to read and comprehend what I was reading. I still owe them great thanks for my love for reading that is still present today.
My Aunt Trena...
...and my Aunt Brenda!
After seeing my love for reading and how well I comprehended literature, my aunts challenged me to read one of their favorite books, To Kill A Mockingbird, and they would ask me questions about it as I read. Keep in mind that this occurred while I was thirteen years old! Both of my aunts said that I comprehended this book better than they could have ever imagined and were very surprised by this fact! This book continues to be my favorite book even at this very day!
Through my childhood, two television shows stood out to me that made me fall even more in love with reading. These two shows were Reading Rainbow and Between the Lions. Both of these shows aired on PBS Kids and taught me so much about reading and were a huge part to my day that I always looked forward to when the time came.
Reading Rainbow - Theme
Between the Lions: "Between the Lions" Theme
As my love for reading grew, I desired to get a library card. One of my childhood friend's parents took me to get my library card and my parents would take me on a weekly basis to get books and I would read them as fast as I possibly could. I still have my library card and even though I don't use it much anymore, it is still an ever-present symbol of my love for reading.
In high school, I had two teachers that seemed to be the "cherry on top" of my reading history. My freshman year English teacher, Mr. Beam, and my sophomore English teacher, Mrs. Revis. These teachers pushed me to improve my writing ability and to be able to communicate my reading comprehension in a more effective way. Even though they worked my nerves on most (if not all) days, I owe them extreme gratitude for helping make me fall in love with English even more and pushing me to eventually decide upon becoming an English teacher.
(This is Mrs. Revis' published book that is one of a trilogy. She is currently working on publishing another trilogy and is a New York Times Bestselling Author!)
Well, there you have it!
All of these events helped shape me and make me the reader I am today. I owe all of these people and events so much gratitude for helping make me the reader I am today. Also, these things instilled in me a great love for reading and a passion for helping others discover their love for reading. It is truly amazing how all of these things worked together to shape me today. These are the pages of my reading life.