Klingaman 1 Emma Klingaman Ms.

Weaver Rhetoric 15 November 2013 Literary Narrative Everyone has their own background, opinions, and ideas; therefore everyone creates their own definition of literacy and their own literate identity. To me, literacy is a combination of various things. It is how you read, write, and communicate. I have been molded by different environments that make up my life. I have two major sponsors to my literacy, which are my Sister, who taught me to strive for perfection, and one of my English teachers who taught me to embrace challenges and in that way, prepared me for my future. Both my home life and my schooling have played a role in making me the literate person that I am today. As a child I was shy and reserved. My sister Cara, who is 12 years older than me, has the opposite characteristics. She is very outgoing and enthusiastic. Whenever you are with her, you are having a great time. One of my fondest memories of her when I was younger is that she would always sing to me It Really Was a Woozle from Winnie the Pooh. She would be holding me all while jumping around and singing. We were all smiles and laughs when we were together. I felt comfortable with her. I could be myself, have fun, and not have to worry about her judging me. She helped me to gain the confidence to reach out to people and enjoy life to the fullest. Because I had so much fun with her and greatly respected her, I have always looked up to her. Aside from being a goofball, Cara is also a brilliantly smart, straight A student. When she wasnt singing and dancing around, she was doing homework and studying. After high school

Klingaman 2 she went on to college to get her bachelor and her master degrees, so all throughout my life I witnessed her hard work and diligence. She got her bachelors degree at San Marcos University which was about two and a half hours from the little mountain town we lived in. She would stay in San Marcos all week going to classes and studying, then she would drive home and work all weekend, while studying in any spare time she had. She did the same thing throughout obtaining her masters degree at California Baptist University. Because of her work ethic and determination, she didnt take out any loans her first four years in college. She paid her way through it by working and receiving academic scholarships. I always wanted to strive to be like her, to do the best that I could in life. This meant through school and literacy as well. She has always had high expectations for me and this continuously pushed me to impress her. She gave me encouragement and support, but it was earned through hard work. Because of this, Cara greatly impacted what I came to know as my literate identity. Throughout all of my schooling, English was one of my favorite subjects. I loved to read and write. In middle school, I can remember writing short stories over the summer just for fun. My senior year in high school stands out the most to me because of the impact that my English teacher had on my literacy. Her name was Mrs. Commodore; she was a short Pilipino woman with a fiery attitude. At the beginning of the year I was quite intimidated by her, she had that effect on people, but by the end of the first semester I had a lot of respect for her. She was a kind person at heart, but she showed her love by having strict rules to follow and making you endeavor to succeed, which meant that she really did care about you. She was one of those teachers that you really have to analyze and figure out in order to do well in the class. I had always done well in English. I was an A student, so I specifically remember being devastated

Klingaman 3 when I got back the first essay that I wrote in Mrs. Commodores class. I got a B on it. I didnt get Bs on essays and I truly didnt understand, so I talked to her about what I could improve on for the future. She told me that she very rarely handed out As on essays and then she gave me a few pointers on what exactly she was looking for. Getting that B made my ambition even more powerful then it previously was. Mrs. C challenged me and it undoubtedly made me a stronger writer. In her class we also did these things called quick writes. She would write a quote on the board and we would have around 3 minutes to read and digest it and then we were to write nonstop for 10 minutes deciphering it. Afterwards, we would have a class discussion on what we came up with, this would stun me sometimes. What we found the quotes to truly mean was enlightening enough to the point where the whole class agreed that she should have been a philosophy teacher instead. In doing exercises like these, she taught me to think more deeply and pull out the underlying meaning and analogies in writing. I learned how to analyze pieces of writing, which made my writing, reading, and speech better. In these ways, Mr. C played a role in sculpting my literate identity. From when I was a little girl to today, I have been inspired by my older sister to strive for the best in school and in life in general. Cara taught me the determination it takes to absorb myself in aiming for excellence. In high school I was influenced by an outside party, Mrs. Commodore. What she taught me prepared me for college and for my future. She encouraged me to think for myself, form my own opinions while staying open minded, and to think outside the box. Collectively, along with other influences in my life, they molded my literate identity. I have grown as a writer and reader as well as in communicating efficiently with people because of them, and I hope to continuously better myself.