High School: A Transformative Time
Although I was pretty raw as both a reader and writer, high school offered a great opportunity to develop my skills. But yet, another hurdle was on its way. Once I got to Junior year of high school and began AP English classes, the times where just completing a writing assignment is enough was over. I got my first essay back and I only received a C. I had never gotten a score that low on an essay, much less any other assignments. The teacher said my essay had no format, and that it felt like I did not truly understand the text I was writing about. I could have thrown in the towel here, cursed literacy and its difficulty. While I was pretty disappointed, I recognized this as a time to challenge myself. I knew that I had something to offer in both areas of reading and writing, I just did not have it dialed yet. I picked myself up and began to truly learn what writing was about. Not only did you have to make an argument, but it also had to be compelling, and you had to back it up against other competing viewpoints. I learned of the classic 3-pronged thesis statements, the gold standard for high school. While that was great for my literary journey, college is really where I fell in love with reading and writing.
Musical Inspiration
For the middle section of my journey, I have chosen Pixies, and more specifically, their lead singer and songwriter Frank Black. I love the way Frank Black is able to convey emotion in his songs, making the listener feel so many different things even if the situations are completely made up. This correlates to this era of my literacy journey, I was learning how to write on more than just a base level. I was learning how to find a purpose in my writing, and how to implement my own style into my writing. I was finally starting to form some of my own opinions and tastes, and I began to understand that road bumps were coming whether I liked it or not, so I could either face them head on or let them throw me off course.
AP English
I made the decision to take AP English classes for both my Junior and Senior year of high school and it was one of the best decisions of my life. I still remember receiving All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren and being incredibly terrified. The book stood at daunting 661 pages and I had never really read a book that long before, but I was ready to accept the challenge. By the end of the novel, it had completely changed the way I looked at literacy in school. How well the material stuck with me from the book was completely dependent on my frame of mind. I went into the long novel with an open mind and found the experience completely rewarding rather than another mindless school assignment. People like to frame literacy skills as something incredibly difficult to attain, which it definitely can be, but I also think the process can be greatly aided by a change of the approach, considering the advance of literary skills as something rewarding rather than agonizing.
Reflection of this Section
Like many of you reading this, high school was a struggle for me. It was especially hard because I felt like I had it all figured out, that my writing was ironclad, and it felt like my world was falling apart. It was only when I realized that literacy is an ever-evolving process, something you are always working to improve. When I changed my mindset from trying to beat literacy to just trying to constantly improve, I finally gained a true appreciation for interacting with it. So if you feel like literacy is something that you just cannot conquer, remember I was at the very same point as you, and I was able to put my head down and make it through, so take it one step at a time, and do not try to build Rome in a day.
Nicolas Drago Digital Literacy Narrative 