Literary Narrative Rough Draft

Math is Life

            As my mom cooked a full-course meal for the five of us, I sat on the kitchen floor arranging the alphabet magnets on the refrigerator, reading and creating words as simple as C-A-T, D-O-G, H-O-T and D-O-T. After all the readings with my mother, I advanced,  reading and creating bigger words in books such as, Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish and Arthur Series by Marc Brown, my favorites. I could read those books consecutively, over and over, hour after hour. And with the wide variety of books that my dad owned, I could have been reading books from authors, such as Mark Twain and Toni Morrison. At a young age, most toddlers are willing to learn and experience anything they possibly can. And for me, I was always interested in something or becoming just like someone. Being like my hero my mother meant a lot because of her strong-willed personality. Seeing her with that black-and-white composition journal at the age of seven influenced me to make my own poem. My poem at the age of seven, titled “I Like Me”, brought out my inner-self and expressed the confidence I had about myself. From time to time, my self-esteem lowered and I would recite the lyrics to myself, “When no one likes me, I still like me.”

            Still young, craving for more experiences, trying to experience and advance in different types of literacies, I remember walking into my uncle’s club and meeting a modeling instructor. She talked to me and my three siblings and next thing you know, we were practicing how stand and sit with posture. All I can remember is my mom asking, “Do you like it?” and me eagerly answering, “I love it”. Youth Explosion Modeling Division was all that I was interested in. I could remember asking, “Mom, when do we start modeling Mommy?”   The first day of practice was fun, and then all of them became fun. Competing in pageants was amazing, from the start of your name being called out and short biography, to talent competition and evening gown competition. And when the name of the winner was announced, not me unfortunately, it just made the night and made me think of winning next year. Out of all the experiences I had modeling, meeting celebrities was my favorite. We met various celebrities from music artist Chingy, to actors Romeo Santana, Rest in Peace, and Reggie Hayes from sitcoms The Steve Harvey Show and Girlfriends, respectively. I enjoyed making music too, but I did not like the way I sound. After years of modeling, practicing became boring and I started to question, “Mom, do I have to go to practice today?” I eventually terminated modeling as a hobby, and sometimes I wish that I would have continued the experience. It was because of my mom that I got the opportunity to experience modeling.

            Along with modeling, I was always busy with different activities. Softball became an activity that I really enjoyed as a child and still enjoy to this day. I began admiring the game as I watched my mom run in, out, and around the softball field. Since being like her mattered to me so much, playing softball was a hobby that we both loved, even though she kind of introduced it to me. I remembered when I would attend her games and we would often play catch, throwing the ball back and forth, until she started playing. Then that one day came and I asked, “Where are we going?” and she answered, “To your softball practice.” I was so shocked and excited that I was finally playing for an actual softball team. I absolutely love the sport of softball and am still learning the game in and out.

            Excitedly going to seventh grade reading class and telling my friends about how I am starting to play softball distracted all of them. I also became distracted and when we started playing popcorn, a reading game played in class that enables students to choose each other to read, I did not know where to start reading and had to get help with the people at another table. It was not only the fact that I did not know where we were, but I had a problem with reading in front of people. I became so nervous and when my classmates finished reading, my heart started to pace, thinking they were going to choose me. When I did read, I felt stupid because my nervousness over-powered my ability to pronounce words correctly, which resulted in stuttering. I always question myself for being able to read perfectly by myself, but when it came to reading in front of an audience I couldn’t. When we read the book Jason & Kyra by Dana Davidson, we read them silently to ourselves and I enjoyed it because we did not have to read aloud. Until one day my teacher Mrs. Jackson decided to pick people to read aloud. I was so upset and nervous of being picked to read. I then realized that I hate reading and I mean hate it.

            Even though I hated reading, when I advanced to eighth grade, I had to teach myself math. My math teacher did not necessarily teach us how to complete a problem. She gave us a page and told us to complete the problem and leave them in our notebooks, so we did not know whether or not the problems we completed were correct or not. To get a good grade in her class, to me, students had to be on her good side. I will never forget the day she gave us progress reports, and the students closest to her, including me, received good grades, and the others received “D’s” and/or “F’s”. Because my mother cared so much of our grades, I cared and refused to let a bad relationship, between my teacher and I, give me failing grade. Reading the textbook by myself advanced my skills of reading and understanding concepts. I often helped other students with problems that I understood and decided to become a teacher, a math teacher, instead of my dream of becoming a doctor. Teaching my classmates to do certain problem was enjoyable, but when my teacher tried to teach, the students were unruly and I decided that being a teacher was not for me.

            As I made the transition from middle school to high school, I thought it would be harder and the teachers would teach more, but, in a way, my high school experience was the same as middle school. High school wasn’t the best experience for me because of the non-caring English teacher I got stuck with. She would get “Class Worst Teacher” if it was up to me. She never did anything but sit at her computer and played games on yahoo all day, every day. Since I hated reading and her class, the books that I was assigned to read never got read. All the Shakespeare readings never grabbed my attention and she did not incorporate any fun activities to get the class engaged in the readings.

 I attended a curriculum-based school, where Business was my curriculum. The courses that I took related to business were Management Support, Accounting, and CO-OP, where students worked at professional corporations receiving credit as a class. Accounting was the best of the best. It was just satisfying to identify the final number to an accounting problem. Accounting lead me to the realization that math is so amazing and satisfying. It can be stressful but it can also be relieving. Taking courses such as Algebra I Honors, Geometry Honors, Algebra II Honors, and Advanced Placement Calculus really set me in the path of loving math, especially, with my favorite teacher, Mr. Hawk.

In the first day of Advanced Placement Calculus, I was inspired by Mr. Hawk when he said, “This is not an easy class so get ready for the time, commitment, and dedication that you have to put forth for this class.” He was super and engaged with every lesson he taught and after every concept he explained he would hold his hands up and shake them like he is “praising the lord” and would ask, “Do ya’ll get it?” If we did not get it, he would then explain the concept further. By him investing all he could into our success as a class, I became more invested in my success. Maybe I should have taken the opportunities and sources my father offered with a wide variety of books at home. Or maybe I’m just a different type of reader, a reader meant to be more of an analyzer and problem-solver, spreading my love for math.