Literacy Narrative
I have had a unique style of holding a pen/pencil since my childhood. Yes, I was a bit different from other students; an odd one out. But was that a matter of concern for me if I did possess the potential to express my views, ideology, and feelings unlike theirs? Not at all. I have always believed in myself and tackled every problem that arose in my path.I am a boy from a South-Eastern Asian country (Nepal) and this is a writing of my literacy journey from being a small kid, who used to cry when it was time for school to a boy who goes to the university. I always chasemy aims, dreams, aspirations, and goals to sustain a better life and to makemy parents proud of their elder son. Reading and writing are essential parts of our life. It enables us to get vast knowledge and diverse ideas andholds something valuable in any person’s life.
Alike others, my story also started from my home. Back then, my mother was a pre-primary level teacher and she taught me to look, learn, and write letters and numbers in both Nepali and English languages before I joined my early school. I turned out to be a smart kid since I started school. I often used to secure good marks at the examination as I was quite good at memorizing things and re-writing them. Having said that, I was not perfect in all ways. Whenever it came to free writing such as writing paragraphs or essays, I used to be nervous because my writing skills weren’t good. Since English was the primary language of communication in my country, the problem was not limited only to me but explored by most of my classmates. We often used to make simple grammatical and spelling errors while writing. Our school had two buildings located far apart. The first one was the “Small Building” and the second one was the “Big Building”. The buildings were named based on their size, the capacity to hold the number of students, and the grades allocated to them. A small building was a single-story building able to hold 300 students from pre-kindergarten to grade four. The big building was afive-story building able to hold 900 students from grade five to grade twelve. Gradually, I grew up and passedgrade four.I and all my classmates were very happy since we were ready to join the big building. We were over the moonthinking about grade five and eagerly waiting for beautiful experiences the future could bring us Eventually, I secured the second position in the final examination of grade four and joined grade five. I was nervous and exhilarated thinking about it. A lot of changes took place after I reached grade five such as a new environment, new places, new teachers, and a difficult course curriculum. In the first terminal examination of Grade five, only scored 85% which was way less in comparison to the score I secured in the last terminal examination of Grade four. I was finding everything difficult at that period of my life. I was surrounded by a lot of questions from my friends, family, teachers, and relatives. Slowly, the study became a burden for me, and I was completely helpless. I became weaker day by day in my studies, lost my self-confidence, andfelt left behind. Some of my friends left my sideand bullied me due to my poor writing style and thegrades. Overall, that was the worst moment of my school life. I didn’t get good marks in the final examination of grade five.
I reached grade six as an average student. Things started turning good in class six. I was appointed as a class monitor by our class teacher. Slowly and steadily, I recollected my thoughts and tried to make myself better day by day. I pushed myself very hard and started writing quotes and assigningextracurricular activities for myself.Gradually, I improvised myself in the study.The improvement was mainly due to the effort of my neighbor who was an English professor at a nearby University.He made a special rule for me that I had to speak English while communicating with him. Healso suggested me to speak with myself in front of a mirror to improve the fluency. Since then, I always communicated to my family members and the classmates in English. I wrote several paragraphs and essays to improve my English. Finally, all those efforts helped me a lotand I began conducting morning assemblies in front of all the students and teachers at my school. Slowly, I became renowned at my school andimproved my grades. That was an awesome moment when I was the favorite student ofmost of my teachers. For an instance, in grade seven, an assignment was given to us by our social science teacher. The assignment was to write about the transportation problemsin our country and the recommendations to resolve it. I wrote abouteightpagesdescribing the potential solutions for the transportation problem in our country which was highly praised by teachers and classmates. All my classmates borrowed my notebook to review my ideas. I was veryfortunate in this assignment which significantly helped me to build up my confidence level. Since then, I also began writing poems and sharing them with my teachers and classmatesAll these events encouraged me participating in every extra-curricular activity such as quizzes, storytelling, oratory, caricature, and annual day functions of school. I also participated in inter-school speech competitions and won the prizes as well. When I reached in gradenine, I had opportunity to be the“School Captain” but lost the opportunity in lottery pull-off with one of my classmate.Later, I was appointed as the president of the Junior Red Cross Circle of our school. I and my team carried out various activities throughout the year and won the title of the “Most ActiveSchoolGroup”in that year. I and my classmates also took trainings about radio programs, created a program, and finally broadcasted in the local radio FM, every weekend. I was also appointed the president of Children’s Club in my village.Finally, I completed the school leaving certificate examination and joinedhigh school. In upper division classes, I read novels and poems by different writers. I even started writing ‘Ghazals’ (A form of poetry in South Asia and the Middle East, whose first and every even-numberedline rhyme). I have started writing the story of my own life in the Nepalilanguage, which is not completed yet, and I’m still working on it. After completing the high school, I joined ‘SAT’ and ‘IELTS’ classes to apply for further education in the United States. Later, I had a visa interview in American Embassy of Nepal and received a student visa.Currently, I am enrolled at McNeese State University, Lake Charles, Louisiana for bachelor’s in computer science program. This has been my journey so far.
In summary, the journey wasn’t easy at all. I went through several ups and downs in my life. No matter how many times I got repelled or pushed off by the circumstances, I never gave up and always bounced back. I will continue to do so. I always believed in myself and my capabilities. I’m grateful to all of themwho helped me during my hard times. I am looking forward incompletingthe story which I have started. This is the only start of my journey and I still have a lot to go.
