Week Three Essay: First Memories of Reading

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Wikipedia

Reading is a term that, when defined by Merriam-Webster's website, is the act of "looking at and understanding the meaning of letters, symbols, etc." It is a common occurrence to forget how much we actually read in a day. People claim that they "don't like reading," yet we read menus, street signs, text messages, social media content, logos on T-shirts, and even directions when putting something together.

I was lucky enough to grow up in a home where reading was the norm. Many times, my family would sit in the living room together reading, rather than watching television. I now know that my family is the anomaly when it comes to that sort of thing, but my parents always stressed the importance of constant knowledge growth through reading. My mother is a first grade teacher and in her profession, she spends a huge chunk of her time each year teaching six and seven year olds how to read. Due to this training, she taught me to read at four years old. 

As I said, reading has always been a part of my life, so thinking back to the first memory I can remember of reading proved more difficult than I thought when I first read this prompt. The more I think about it, I remember my mother reading "Love You Forever" by Munsch. I think this might also be the first book I ever read on my own as well. Remembering back, I found that nearly all of my earliest reading memories included my mother sitting with me on the living room floor, helping me learn how to read. 

The most vivid memory regarding reading that comes to mind is that of me in second grade. My teacher's name was Miss Holohan and I thought that she was the coolest person I had ever met. She was from Ireland on an exchange teaching program but all I knew was that she talked funny and wore clothing that was different from everyone else I knew in Oklahoma. She asked the class if we had read a chapter book before and I was the only person to raise my hand. I had been reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone all summer. She asked if I had the book with me and of course I did, so I pulled it out of my bag. I remember the class gasping at how thick the book was and how they could not believe that I was reading it. Miss Holohan commended me on reading during the summer and the class moved on. 

I think this memory sticks out because reading was the first thing that I was really good at. I have always been one of those people who was pretty average at everything and an expert at nothing. But, reading was the first thing that I was the best in my class at and it gave me pride. Now, when I excel at something, I get that same sense of pride I had when I was the first in my class to read a chapter book.