Literacy Narrative

Literacy Moment

Through both elementary school, and middle school I received good grades. I was earning A’s and B’s in all my classes. When High School started I carried this mentality through my first two years. In these years I was successful in my classes, and was engaged in sports, playing soccer, and running track. Going through my sophomore year, schoolwork started to become overwhelming. During my junior year I started falling behind and started missing classes frequently. By the end of my Senior year at Valley Regional High School, the struggles of my personal life were starting to affect the importance of school I believed it to have. I had a very emotional year involving many family struggles, that caused me to never be present in school. I would be missing weeks at a time, doing virtually no schoolwork. This experience caused a negative but important literacy moment in my life.

I wasn’t passing most of my classes, english being the most important. Without passing this class I wouldn’t have graduated because it was a state requirement all students needed to complete. The high school I attended was one of high stature, earning many awards throughout the years, which boosted their ego. Since my High School was too prideful to let anyone fail to graduate, I was set up with a personal in-school tutor. With a few weeks left of school, this tutor was there to help me complete the bare minimum of five assignments to pass my english class. These assignments took the place of the exams that I was unable to take, because I was so frequently absent. The tutor and I would meet during my english class and work on these assignments together. I had to complete five essays about the books that the class studied during the time I was absent.

The tutor I was set up with was a laid back guy named Mr. White who was roughly 60 years old. He was understanding of my life, but he was adamant about attendance. When we first started, he made me aware of the seriousness of attending these sessions. He said,

“Lindsey, if you do not complete these assignments or have good attendance, you will have to repeat your senior year.” After hearing this I made it a point to do the work that was necessary to complete English class. In my sessions we worked on writing papers, and Mr. White made it a point to teach me how to plan essays. He showed me how important it was to have a good work ethic in school and in life.

Learning from my tutor and following his advice, I finished these assignments last minute, right before the end of the year. I was still unsure of my future at this time, but I got them in and completed my english class. I had done a few essays on books and analyzing texts and it was enough to earn me credit for the class. Right before I received my passing grade I talked with my tutor about how this would effect me in the future. He told me the pass would get you through high school, but this mindset will not be enough to get you through college. I took this to heart because I know how I performed academically that year does not reflect who I am as a student, but this didn’t fully sink in until I had a later realization after being out of school for some time. I received a PASS on my report card, even though it wasn’t a letter grade, it was enough for me to graduate.

Without having this opportunity to work with a tutor, I wouldn’t have been able to graduate. This was an important literacy moment in my life because for the first time in my school career I was faced with the possible outcome of not passing and coming to terms with the mindset I had. I always thought of myself as a good student, but when life became unbearable outside of school, schoolwork was impossible. It made me realize how much school doesn’t matter when bigger life obstacles come into play. From this moment I’ve learned a different mindset to have while in school, I’ve learned how to get out of things easier, make up excuses, and to find any reason that could be more important than school. This mindset has stayed with me to this day, once you think this way your whole outlook on education changes.

Since senior year I’ve been working hard to prove to myself that I’m capable of better work. After completing senior year, I took a year off from school. I used the advice given to me from Mr. White on how to have a good work ethic. Getting out of the school routine and into one that I could’ve possibly had for the rest of my life was eye opening. I worked long days throughout the year and I realized that the types of jobs I was working was the best I would get without a college degree. I still had struggles throughout this year but the incentive of a paycheck kept me going. It put into perspective the capabilities I have to power through hard times to achieve the outcome I strive for. A year off helped me gain confidence in my capabilities and got me to apply and get accepted into college. The task I now face is learning how to treat schooling as my top priority once again. I have the proper tools and past experience to handle this and I believe in myself more than I ever have before to make this a success.