Advanced Essay #2 // Growing Up

Writing this essay wasn't easy because it was a bunch of ideas stuck in my head. Although, I was able to come up with the ideas and put them all together. This essay fits my development as a writer because it connects with who I am as well as having another side of the story having the same significance things as mine. My goals in this essay was to speak who I am, what I want to become, and how I became who I am, connecting with things that's outside of my own concept. I am proud of how I used significant words in my writing and how I can continue as a writer is keep reading and keep writing!

May 1st, 2000 8:31pm I was born. I don’t remember but I looked at my mother, father and sister. Crying was a sign to my family that I was alive and hungry, it was at that moment that I was added to the little family and my name was Nathaniel. To me, Sherman Alexie’s notations helps connects within literature and its deputy. It also connects with the views in my life: “I first understood, with a sudden clarity, the purpose of a paragraph. I didn’t have the vocabulary to say “paragraph”.  This scene of memory is a point of view that changed my life forever. A bit complex, but a complete transformation. Remembering as if I was able to take my first steps. First taught my theoretical ideal of my religion, Christianity. It didn’t start off simple, very confused and concerned. But on the contrary, I’d worship it’s tenacity and beliefs as well it’s commandments. As the years go by, my intelligence increased, able to get a good sense of it’s diversity. What’s right and wrong, what to agree and disagree with, even even the repulsion and the temptation. But most importantly, to believe in my own potentials through the power of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Nonetheless, learning multiple concepts of religions had me thinking, “What if my religion isn’t right? It may be false.”

My mother knows my trouble, telling her what was on my mind. The world was corrupting my mind, like grabbing a butterfly and picking it’s delicate wings. She told me to believe in what she taught, I asked her, how do I know if this religion is true? She told me “you don’t” you just have to have faith and believe. With the amount of questions that was going through my mind, I knew there was no use asking them. My mom somehow had an answer, she knew the very next thing I was going to say. So the trust in her was within me, from my first steps, to my first words. Trying to develop the words inside my mind but it’s not coming out right. “but I realized that a paragraph was a fence that held words. The words inside a paragraph worked together for a common purpose.” She watched me grow up for 8 years. I relied on her very much. Of course, it was still tough for me, the work was stressing me a little bit, and the bullying wasn’t any help. You can say I was like a mime, my actions always spoke louder than my words. When the good things happen, the bad always seems to be on top every time. Told myself, nothing else to turn to but the Bible.

Sin. It’s one of the most brutal things that’s in this world. I also knew that sin started with Adam & Eve, the first 2 human beings that were put on earth created by God, and he told them they can go eat any tree, except for an specific one. The Snake had tempted Eve and she had gave the fruit to Adam. They were both naked, and God came, that moment is the reason where there is sin in the world, why there is temptation, lies, deceiving, hate, violence. All the negativity in the world exists because of it. Although, realizing the potentials in myself is indescribable. An African American kid who has christianity as its protection is nothing more than love and power. Realizing I am blessed. Even though I believe that God has my side, the sin will never stop in this world. It will develop inside of me, try to find ways to make me turn to who I am not, and reading the phenomena of Alexie’s piece shows me the difference between virtue and sin. “I refused to fail because I was smart. I was arrogant. I was lucky.” Finally realizing that this is who I would be and this is something I will soon have to accept.

What is Literacy? Literacy is the ability to read and write. But not just that, literacy develops the way you describe what your saying, even though our actions speak louder than our words, readers can’t see our actions, but they can always read our actions. Literacy matters most in my life because it shows dedication and an deep depth of knowledge. “The differences in reading ability between five-year olds and eight-year olds are caused primarily by the older children's possessing more knowledge, not by the differences in their memory capacities, reasoning abilities, or control of eye movements.” Ed Hirsch Jr.  There are many forms of literacy. There is knowledge, proficiency, cultivation, and education. But each one comes in different structures, from the tip of our hair to the bottom of our feet we are all created differently, but equally. No one is better than the other, we are all the same being. Whether we have different opinions, all of them matter, because one will be right. It’s not always by what we believe in either, but by what we choose to believe in. Because we all come in different shapes and sizes, and we all come in different race and ethnicity, you could even say we come with different emotions.