Final Version of Literacy Narrative

   

 Hallan Martinez                                                                                                                                        

Ms. Nargiza Matyakubova                      A New Set of Cloth                                                                  

English 101

September 11, 2017 

            "ipsa scientia potestas est" ('knowledge itself is power') by Sir Francis Bacon. My story is not a happy one is more of a realistic one. In order for you to understand my reasons and motives you must know my story, you must know about my past. I didn’t grew up with a father so, he never read me stories at night, neither cover me with a blanket will I sleep, I did not had that father to look up to, nor follow his steps. I grew up in Mexico where I live with my siblings and mother, in a place where the sun did not shine. A place where water was scarce, and birds did not sing., Money was a big issue in our house I often saw my mom struggling to buy food, food was insufficient. I did not had time to play with friends or a television to watch, because we were poor. All I had was a bottle with some sand and rock inside to play with and some old cloth with holes in it to wear. I did not know what a best friend was, I did not have a passion for writing or reading. I never found interest in learning, or questioning ideas. It never crosses my mind to question someone. Everything was such a drag, I started school a year earlier and every time I went there I thought "schools is not made for me", because I was poor my life was a little more complex than any other normal student I did not had friends. Although I always sat alone during lunch time, I never felt alone. I guess I was a little kid to understand what the reason behind their actions was. I didn’t pay any attention to it, I grew up by myself without friends but it did not impact me in any way I guess it was not so important for me to have a social life when am fighting for survival. My grades in school were horrible, I had very poor grade I could barely pass my classes. But my mother never asks for more because she knew that I was 1 year younger than the others and because of that my brain was not fully developed as my classmates. My mother had no education at all, even though she had no education she knew that a well-educated person has greater opportunities in life, therefore she always pushed me in my education. She was the only person I trusted, she was the one who gave me a motive to walk such a harsh path. I remember every time I felt sick or depress she cheer me up, one-day I was cutting wood with my brother and all of a sudden, I cut my finger and ran up to my mother crying and screaming. My fingers was almost cut in half it was hanging by a thin piece of skin, I saw her face turn white like snow, blood all over the place, her eyes got bigger, her mouth was not moving, she was paralyze. After a few seconds she pulled herself together and instead of screaming and becoming paranoid she fast folded my finger cleaning it with alcohol and walking me to the hospital. She stayed there for the entire day. Even till today I still remember that face that my mom it was a face I have never seen since then and hope I never see it again. Every time I Look at my scar I remember that day and it remains me of how important I am to my mother. She tried her best on everything, and never gave up on us and our future, she was the one who care about my studies and the one who instilled them.          

            Since the first day I step in I hated school, every single aspect of it, I just hated part of it is due to the fact that my childhood was not the best of all, it was a game of want and deny, which mean that all the thing I wanted I couldn’t have them. Now that am older I can feel the pain my mother felt when I ask her for money and she didn’t have none, that feeling of denying something to the person you love not because you do not want to is just that you cannot afford to give it. My mother always told me to persuade education, I remember her talking to me with her face dirty and with battered hands “studies are your future, you must study to become someone in life." That was her goal as a mother seeing their children’s grow and become someone. She was the only figure I look up to and the only one I feel deep respect for, to raise three kids was more than enough reason to respect her not only as a mother but also as a human being. Even though we were poor because of here we never die of hunger, sickness or a bit of a poisonous animal like scorpions which are very common in Mexico, all because of her careens. Every time I receive my report card and I saw a 7/10 or a 6/10 I felt shame of myself it was a feeling of anger and despair because I had felt her as a student. She never views it that way, she never screamed at me or hit me, all she did was to look me in the eyes and with a big smile said next "time you will do better I know it." I wanted her to be proud of me to make her feel accomplish as a mother but I couldn’t do it. She was the reason I learn to read and write, because she wanted us to learn. It was because of her that I began my studies, and the reason I try harder and harder to pass my classes. It was not the boring lectures that my teachers taught, it was not for me or my future it was for her, and to make her happy was my goal. No matter what happened in my life she was the reason behind. My reason to do work, study, and to continue my education.

       
     After a couple years my family made the decision of coming back to my country of origin U.S.A. since then we have been living in Brooklyn. I was like 11 or 12 during that time, I clearly remember coming and looking around the airport not understanding a single thing on the boards.  During first month I enter school the first day of classes I found myself confuse everything I saw I could not understand everything was so complex. I do remember my teacher trying to make me feel comfortable telling other students that speak Spanish to help me, it was a whole new world, a new language, new faces, a new beginning and a new set of cloth. I was put in a program of ESL were I was taught some traditions that people have in the U.S celebrated like thanksgiving but not only that also, I was in that course to improve my English. We all have that one memory when we are kid that makes us feel either comfortable talking in front of others or hating to present in front of others. My experience was a simple one but very uncomfortable, I was presenting a work that had few sentences, all of a sudden when I started to talk I hear laughs, my accent was so notable and strong that my classmates laugh about it all the class started to laugh and started to imitate me, my face turn read heat was coming out of my ears looking down I went back to my seat since that day I began to hate presentations or/and talking in front of others because of my accent. I finish my 5^th grade and graduated, I won a reward of the best student in ESL program. I entered middle school, here is where I encounter my second issue as a student, bullying, I was often called names by others students, they ask me question similar to this one, are you an idiot? Or was the difference between a donkey and you?  I could not understand them so I never answer them they just laugh at me, but because I was incapable of understanding, it did not hurt me or my studies. After a year and a half, I remember clearly how a friend of I ask me “are you hungry?” in a full sentence I answer back “no, I ate breakfast this morning thanks for asking” I understand what he was saying, little by little I was learning the new language called English. As time pass my interest for studying was becoming smaller and smaller. I barely try to pass my classes but for some random reason I was pretty good on them I was not a 100’s student but I was of 85's and 90's, my mother was very proud of me because I just had come to this country and I was getting good grades. I graduated middle school with an average of 90. The satisfaction my mother felt when she saw me graduating was immense I could feel her happiness; I was happy for her but for me it was not something special. During the summer I try to read some books to see if I could wake up an interest in reading but it did not work at all.        

   
   I entered high school nothing change I did not felt any attraction towards learning and I even became lazier as time pass. I kept getting good grades without even trying the only challenge I had was English nothing else, but I became so bored of trying to learn it that I decide that I would not force myself to learn it was a simple excuse for giving up. I was put into honors program and there everything changes, out of nowhere I started to feel enthusiasm for learning and felt my classes interesting, it was like changing into a new set of cloth. There was no specific event that woke my interest it was the contribution of various events and friend, family that made me change. My "career" as a student finally started after a long period, I started to enjoy new topic, and questioning everything. During that period of time I started to read quotes such as "power is knowledge" by Sir Francis Bacon, and “When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.” by Mark Twain. Those quotes help me a lot in understanding certain things that I did not understand before. The feeling you get when you have a better and wider understanding in a certain topic than others, that feeling that you get when you know the answer that they are looking for. Is a feeling that satisfies everyone who felt it before, I started to seek for knowledge because knowledge same as education open new paths. The idea of learning new information about anything in general kept me awake uncountable times it was fun, school was fun. It was finally time for me to enjoy those “boring lectures.”

          
  No matter how many times I fail I keep aiming high, because no matter how hard I felt I was though to never give up.  Sometime I just stared at the sun will is sets down the west and   remember that boy that had broken shoes, that boy that played with a bottle with himself enjoying his ignorance and being happy in the darkness. That boy that thought that education was worthless. Everything have change I have become someone better, someone that is capable of understanding two different languages, someone who try his best in his studies, someone with plenty of friend to talk too,

someone who try his best in his studies, someone with plenty of friend to talk too, someone with a grate family, someone with a new set of cloth.  Education is part of what I am today and what I would become in a future. Reading and writing are such an important skill that every single person should have, thanks to my mother I was capable of learning those skills that now days I use will I work through my major. I thank her for being there when I needed her, to make me realize that theirs more in life to look for. You must seek for the peak of education in order for you to find knowledge. I will do wrong if I give all the credit to my mother I also thank my teachers for waking my interest in learning new material and for helping find another motive to study. For making me learn those “boring lectures” and for answering all my questions until now. They have so much to do in everyone education but still people forget the importance of them and how grateful we should be toward them.  No one is capable of choosing the family and place where they were born and raised but we are the ones who decide what to become.