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Ben Furlong
Miss Eaker
UWRT 1103-80043
3 December 2014
Puzzle Pieces: A Personal Literacy Narrative
When people think of literacy, many ideas and opinions come to mind. Some feel as
though literacy is one of the most defining elements of human nature, while others find it boring
and useless. I used to be the latter, but have since changed my opinions on the matter. I have
discovered through various experiences the role literacy plays in my life. Literacy helps you
discover yourself. Every word you read, write, or hear puts together another piece of your unique
puzzle.

My journey started in sophomore year English, where we were all allowed to write our
own stories that could be funny, scary, have a moral meaning or that recount a real life
experience. It was great for me because for the first time I could write whatever I wanted for an
English class. I decided to write a scary and somewhat graphic short story. I put some thought
into it and let my mind roam free. My story described a group of teens who wandered into an
abandoned house. This house was conveniently located in the middle of the woods, with a rumor
that a previous group of teens had gone missing there several years before. The teens sat within
the living room in darkness, with only a fire to keep them company. Suddenly they heard
screams and running on the floor above them. There was a struggle, with hits and whimpers.
Silence overcame the house, soon followed by the sound of something heavy being dragged
around. Seeing blood seeping through the floor, the teens decided it was time to leave. Before
they could get to the door, however, they saw a humanoid figure walk to the bottom of the stairs.

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Shadowed in darkness, it malevolently croaked, I see you The story ends where it began,
with another group of teens about to investigate the same house several years later after hearing
rumors that a previous group of teens disappeared there some time ago. The entire class read my
story, but did not know it since my name was kept anonymous. The class then gave their
thoughts about it afterwards. While my story was not the very original, with some saying that it
was horribly clich, the class tolerated it anyways and gave praise for the details and cycling
plot. Overall, they thought it was well written and worth their time. It was the first time in my
history I was genuinely happy and confident about something I wrote. I started to believe that
maybe I was not such a terrible writer, and that I could improve. Recognizing my abilities
firsthand, I discovered my new appreciation for writing stories and other personal creative
works. A piece of confidence had been placed inside me.

In junior year English, we read Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
and had to do a project on it. I thought to myself, Great, another reflection paper. However,
unlike most report based English projects, this one involved music. We had to pick out six songs
and describe how they connected to the story, literally or figuratively. Like the story from
sophomore year, this was meant for the creativity of the student to be unleashed. The songs were
to be put into an album format and played to the rest of the class by a presentation. The
uniqueness of the project helped me become more analytical to other types of literacy,
specifically audio. Now instead of just reading and writing, I had to think in a different way
about the story in abnormal literacy circumstances. I applied music and my own hearing to the
ideas and experiences expressed in the book, rather than just writing about them. My songs took
a more literal approach, but they were still very meaningful to the story and highlighted my
literacy skills. Some of my songs described fighting back adversity with the gift of still being

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alive, while others highlighted the need to take yourself to better places to improve yourself. One
even sang about how while everything might be fine in the future, today was a living Hell.
Finding these songs was a daunting challenge, since I had over 1000 in my library. Yet, I
pursued and found the perfect six songs to describe my attitudes towards the plot and purpose of
the book. This book project greatly contributed towards the understanding of my own literacy by
making me use more than just words to describe myself. Through this, I learned how literal
minded I was and how I enjoyed songs that described a story, no matter how happy or painful.
My pleasure for music was a piece that literacy helped fit into place.
For the first two weeks of senior year English, the class had to write the classic I
believe statements. These I believe statements are short essays that describe and explain what
the author believes in and why. Since I believe statements are usually done every single
English year, students usually put token effort into them and sometimes straight up copied them
from the previous years class. This usually makes the essays quite stale. However, I decided to
do something different that year. I wanted to write the essay about something I really believed in,
without being too generic, either. I decided to write about the subject of niceness vs kindness,
which I had been thinking about recently from events happening in my own life. I believe that
there is a distinct difference between the behaviors of being nice and being kind. I saw niceness
as a generic overused word, like very, and as an act rather than a real personality trait. I
thought that anybody could be described as nice if he or she put on a convincing enough mask.
Kindness, on the other hand, was part of someones character from my perspective. You tell
fighting kids to act nice towards each other, but you teach them to be kind instead. I gave the
short speech on my belief statement and argument. While only being around 300 words, the
essay had a much bigger impact. Not only did my class love it, my teacher Mr. Dillard praised it

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for its specialness and unique perspectives. Yet again, I had become a better writer and my own
confidence in my writing increased. I discovered a previously unknown and influencing
perspective I possessed through the act of literacy. My new perspectives were another piece I
found that fit perfectly, and the puzzle was becoming more complete.

For Engineering 1201 this summer/fall, we had to read a book called The 7 Habits of
Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. The book is a very hard read, usually requiring an
hour and a half just to get through a single chapter. However, the book served as a useful guide
towards understanding how the world works. I experienced what is known as a paradigm shift
while reading Coveys book, which is when a sudden and psychologically changing perspective
shift occurs. The book opened up my eyes to many of the misconceptions and problems that
others and I had in life. From realizing that being interdependent, rather than independent, was
the highest stage of maturity to finding out I could choose to react a different and more effective
way to lifes troubles, I learned many new concepts that had never been introduced to me before.
Interdependence is when independent people form to accomplish a common goal, which I
reached through teamwork in the class. I never had seen this perspective before, since I was
always taught that independence was the most important thing I could possess. I felt like his
book helped me see a better, brighter and more concrete side of things that I was not used to
seeing. I was now in charge of my own life and the problems within it, and I could expand my
circle of influence mentally to change these problems. I became more optimistic and expressive
about life and the struggles within it. I no longer thought, Wow, I wish I could just give up and
leave anymore. Reading Coveys book helped make me more solid in my beliefs and perception
of the world. Without reading his book, I would not have discovered this new interesting ideas
and methods. I learned more about the world and myself through reading, which is a distinct

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branch of literacy. This piece of me was a big one, since my entire image was changed by
finding it.

Literacy helps you discover yourself. Every word you read, write, or hear puts together
another piece of your unique puzzle. Literacy helped me discover myself in ways I never thought
possible, helping build a puzzle that was an image of myself. This image is not complete yet, and
it will always be changed when I find new pieces that fit better. However, I now am a much
better piece of art to behold and feel like I was worth the time it took to put the pieces together.
Pieces, whether large or small, kept falling into place through reading, writing, speaking and
listening. There are still more pieces to fit in my puzzle, so I will continue to practice and use my
literacy to help complete it.