20 Elijah Hendrickson – A long-winded explanation of my journey through literacy

Elijah Hendrickson is a Freshman from Losantville, IN and he is majoring in Accounting. Elijah graduated from Randolph Southern JR SR High School in May of 2024. This work was prepared for Sharon A. Lucero’s English 131, who states, “He did an excellent job in explaining the emphasis of his story, and he did very well with his inclusion of his source, Deborah Brandt.”

A long-winded explanation of my journey through literacy

Reading has always been a big part of my life. Like many others, I could not say what got me into reading. My parents encouraged me to read from a young age, being readers themselves. The rest of my family, my high school librarian, and most of my English teachers were also influential to my development as a reader. This got me to keep reading as I got older to the point where I almost always had a book with me throughout high school to get me through the long hours of the day.

When I was a young child, one of my favorite things to do was to have a story read to me by either of my parents. Like a lot of other children, these stories were read to me late at night before I went to sleep. I would pick out one of the many books I had on a shelf in my room and would stay up listening to my parents read to me. Throughout elementary school, this evolved into them reading stories out of my textbook to help me with my homework.

Having good literacy sponsors did further along my journey in this area. I have no doubt that I would not be as interested in reading as I am now if not for the many great sponsors I have had throughout my life. I had several high school teachers who encouraged me to read and helped me become a better writer. My seventh grade English teacher was happy to give me book suggestions or being curious about what I was reading. During my freshman year of high school, I had to read several books I was not familiar with such as The Odyssey, Romeo and Juliet, and A Separate Peace. I had to learn to be better at writing essays because of my sophomore English teacher who expected the best of her Honors English students. During my senior year, my English teacher was sure to walk us through the last things we had to learn in writing a good essay to succeed in the AP exams. My AP government teacher had us write essays in an hour for her tests. These were all very beneficial because, without them, I would not be able to construct a decent essay or have more interest in reading.

The two primary sponsors in my life have been my parents because they both have a love for reading. The rest of my family loves to read, too. It is not uncommon for me to see my grandparents reading on their Kindles when I spend time at their house. My aunt is a former high school librarian and always encouraged me to read. My cousin and I share a lot of interests including books. We have spent a lot of time trading text messages about books, with him giving me recommendations or even lending some of his books to read.

While, like me, both of my parents are readers, I am the odd one out. This is because I do not like reading digital books, while both of my parents do, and my father in particular prefers reading on his tablet. His preference stems from having to unpack books after moving. Having the books digitally is much more convenient. While I understand this, I prefer physical copies of my books to line up on a shelf. I collect book series and have them available in my room when I want to read. I own all the James Reece books written by Jack Carr, the main six Dune books by Frank Herbert, the Witcher novels written by Andrzej Sapkowski, and several of The Gray Man novels by Mark Greaney. I enjoy setting the books up on my shelves in order, making it easy to select the book I want to read.

I also enjoy collecting comic books, in particular, collections of series that I want to read. I have had an interest in comic books since I was a child and my love for comics is likely something that helped me learn to read since I read them when I was very young. Now I have a decent size collection that consists of around eighty-five different comics, a significant portion of which I got as gifts. Collecting books, as well as comics, is a very fun hobby that I will likely continue in the years to come.

As I have demonstrated above, reading is one of my primary hobbies. It is an easy way for me to relax, especially if the book is a part of a series I am invested in or if the book is part of a genre I enjoy. One of my favorite books is The Terminal List by Jack Carr. I received the book as a Christmas gift and took the time to read it during the beginning of my second semester of my junior year of high school. Fortunately, I had several class periods throughout my day to read the book, due to being ahead in the online classes I was taking. I remember sitting down one morning, opening the book, and reading through the prologue, which grabbed me instantly. The next thing I knew, I was finished. The book grabbed my attention and kept me hooked to the point where it likely affected me in my classes because all I wanted was to get back to the book. Whenever I got to one of my classes where I could read, I would set my things down and open the book almost immediately. It was disappointing when I finished the book because I did not have anything else to read that interested me as much as The Terminal List and other books in its genre.

While I always loved to read, I did not always love writing essays. I wrote some of my first essays during my freshman year of high school. Those essays were incredibly stressful for me because I was not sure of what I was doing. I spent several late nights trying to finish a rough or final draft of an essay that was due the next day. Learning to write a good essay took some practice and I am still not sure I’ve mastered it. However, there is less stress in writing essays because I had to write so many during my time in AP classes throughout my junior and senior years. Having to write several essays over the course of an hour or two during my AP exams was the most stressful I ever found essay writing to be. While there is still stress to it now, I feel like it is not as bad as it would have been if I had not taken those exams.

Another big thing that influences my literacy is the internet, specifically listening to podcasts. I enjoy listening to podcasts while doing homework, driving, or just to help me relax. While listening to these podcasts, I will hear the hosts or guests talk about a book they read that they enjoyed. If the topic of the book interests me, I will investigate the book and try to find it at a bookstore or an online store. Another element of this will be listening to a podcast where the host or guest is an author. Hearing an author talk about the process of writing a book, fiction or nonfiction, is something that has always interested me and listening to it keeps me entertained. Another element to this is over the last two years, I have developed an interest in military and US history. This topic has kept me entertained and I have primarily learned about it via podcasts I listen to. But I am aware that some of the topics I am interested in I could find more information on with books. And now, whenever I get the chance, I will look through a bookstore to find books about the topic. Most recently, I have developed an interest in the best snipers through history and have started collecting books about them. The ability to hear what these authors have to say about their process has been important to my development and has inspired me.

For years now, my dream has been to write novels for a living. This is something I want to do for a variety of reasons, chief among them being I love crafting a story, finding it a fun, creative exercise that keeps me occupied. During high school, I would write short stories in my free time. I would like to write action thrillers or fantasy books if I get to write for a living. However, I know there are no guarantees that my books will get published at all, which is why I am pursuing a business degree as a backup. I am not planning to give up on my dream, but I do want to be realistic.

In Writing about Writing (2020), Deborah Brandt wrote, “The field of writing studies has had much to say about individual literacy development. Especially in the last quarter of the 20th century, we have theorized, researched, critiqued, debated, and sometimes even managed to enhance the literate potentials of ordinary citizens as they have tried to cope with life as they find it” (p. 246). Literacy has always been a very important part of my life and likely always will be. Reading and writing have helped me through some mental health issues. During the COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020, reading helped me avoid the real world for a few hours at a time. I have let other things take my interests away from it, but I always end up returning to reading. And, while I do not enjoy writing essays, I understand the process has been beneficial to me in the long term because I learned to be a good writer. I understand that literacy has helped shape who I am today, something I owe to all the literacy sponsors I had over the years encouraging me to keep reading and writing. Be it collecting books or comics, writing short stories in my free time, or just reading books like The Terminal List to relax, I can always rely on reading and writing to keep me entertained and help me learn when I need to.

References

Brandt, D. (2020). Sponsors of literacy. In E. Wardle & D. Downs (Eds.), Writing about writing (pp. 244-263). Boston, New York: Bedford St. Martin’s.