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I was born.
I was born into a family with a Jewish mother, a Christian father and my two year old brother, Micah, at Lutheran Hospital where I stayed for one day before going home to a house full of extended family. It was here that I began to hear congratulations in both English, and Hebrew. -
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Early Childhood
Growing up, my family did not have a lot of money and couldn't afford much but my parents did the best they could and found just about anything you could do in the city for free. We spent our childhood going to every muesum that had a free day, going to the zoo, hiking, parks, events in the city, etc. One of our favorite things to do was to walk to Woodbury Libraray in Highlands. The library was only a few blocks from our house so we would walk there to get new books a few times a week. -
First book read to me.
My mom began reading to me from Frank Baber's Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes on the second day of my life. I was read to everyday after that multiple times a day. We were read to before naps and bedtime, and often at other times of the day just for fun. -
Began attending Temple Emanuel regularly.
When I was a month old I began attending services at Temple Emanuel in Denver. The services were given in both English and Hebrew. -
One of My Favorite Books
On my first birthday I was given a book that went on to become one of my favorite books to have read to me as a small child. This book along with a collection of Sweet Pickles books, Every Dr. Suess book you could think of, and the Mother Goose Rhymes book became a sort of soundtrack to my childhood. -
Loved Writing
As a small child I could often be found with a writing utencil and paper. I would scribble on the paper thinking that I was writing. Then as I got older and my abilities began to progress I would scribble lines on a page thinking that I was writing in cursive just like my mom. -
Attended 1st Year of Preschool at the Jewish Community Center
I began to attend my first year of preschool two half days a week at the Jewish Community Center. Here we worked on learning numbers and letters in both English and Hebrew. -
Began Sunday School
I began attending sunday school when I was 3. We learned to memorize songs and prayers in Hebrew. We were also exposed to Hebrew written text in the form of one-to-one correspondence while singing the Aleph Bet or playing games like Dreidel. -
Steele Preschool
Shortly before I turned four I began attending Steele Preschool two days a week. I continued there until I was five. -
Letters in the Mailbox
I was fascinated with the mailbox. I loved the idea of sending and receiving letters through the mail. I would often pretend to write my family notes so that I could put them in the mailbox and pretend that I had sent them throught the mail. I would get so happy when someone would check the mail and find my letters. My dad was especially good at pretending to be really excited when he found one from me. I would always sign the envelope tofrom Jessi -
Attended Tiny Tots Pre Kinder Program
At Tiny Tots we began learning to read. -
Unquenchable thirst for knowledge
When I began kindergarten I had an amazing teacher as well as parents that believed that education was of the utmost importance. Everything my family did together was a learning experience. If we went hiking we were learning about the outdoors or the history of the area. At museums we read everything. I wanted to know everything and loved reading. I thought that reading was one of the most amazing things that I had ever done.I began to inhale books. I started with the DIck and Jane books. -
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Primary School
I attended Bryant Webster Elementary from Kindergarten through half of 5th grade. Bryant Webster was a Bilingual school where I began to learn Spanish. Throughout this experience I became fairly srong with my receptive skills in Spanish but never really achieved much in the way of productive Spanish. -
Excelling
I excelled quickly in school by the end of second grade I was completing my work quickly which gave me plenty of time to get in trouble. I would refuse to do work that I had already learned or shown what I was capable of doing. My parents were very active in my education and asked the school to test me for gifted and talented. They were told that they were not going to test me because they did not think I qualify due to my refusal to do the work. -
Losing my love for reading.
By the end of second grade I was sent to a 4th grade classroom for reading. I had learned to love the characters in the stories I read like friends, and think of the stories as adventures that I could go on. The worlds that I read about were very real to me. We read The Bridge to Terabithia. When one of the characters in the story died, It was the first death I had ever experienced and it had a prodound affect on me, I began to lose my passion for reading. -
Identified GT
By the end of 3rd grade I was officially identified as GT. -
Mrs. Madiera
In 3rd grade, Mrs. Madiera was an amazing story teller, and did some wonderful read alouds. She read The BFG. This became the only book that I would read for pleasure for until 5th grade. -
Move to Northglenn
My family moved from Highlands in Denver to Northglenn. -
Where the Red Fern Grows
While I still had no passion for reading, My 5th grade teacher read our class Where the Red Fern Grows. That book replaced The BFG as the book that I read for pleasure. My copy is well read. -
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Secondsry Education
Throughout middle school I was a horrible reader. I would only read what I absolutely had to. I had no interest in reading anything and it was often a huge fight to get me to read. Once I got into high school, I began to read for pleasure but it took a long time for my love of reading to come back. -
Attempts
Throughout 6th and 7th grade I tried to find books that would hook my interest and challenge me, but I often found that the books that would challenge me often had content for which I was not ready. There was a disconnect for me and books. -
Found an Author
By the end of 8th grade I had matured a bit and discovered an author whose books I enjoy. It took me almost a year to read my first Mary Higgins Clark book but I actually began having the desire to read again. -
Bat Mitzvah
In order to become a Bat Mitzvah I had to read a Torah portion in Hebrew, lead a service in both English and Hebrew, and write a deliver a speech in which I talk about what my Torah portion meant to me. All of which I was very proud of, but my one major regret is that I was never taught/learned conversational Hebrew. I was taught the aleph bet, I learned the letters, text directionality, decoding, vowels, consonants, etc. I learned everything you need to read except the meaning. -
Ender's Game
My freshmen year in high school I was in the middle of reading my second Mary Higgins Clark book and I was hooked. My reading speed began to pick up pace though not much and I was slowly coming back to books. Mr. Van Wert, my freshman English teacher was a cranky and stubborn man who liked a challenge. He was also determined to make reading interesting. He assigned us Ender's Game. He challenged me to quit complaining and read the book. It became one of my favorite books. -
Love of Reading Returns
By the end of my freshman year my love for reading had returned, though it was limited to one author and the remainder of the Ender's game series. I managed to read every book she had written. My cousin and I had formed a sort of book club to talk about her books. -
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Post Secondary
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Avid Reader
By the time my freshman year of college began I had begun to read the final 3 books in the Ender's game series. These books were very different from not only Ender's Game but from anything else I had read. They were some of the most thought provoking books and I loved the way that reading books that challenged my thinking made me feel. I began to read nonstop, even during meals, at parties, many times that I should not have been reading. -
Finding a Balance
It took me many years to begin to find a balance between reading for fun and living in the real world to socialize with people, but I eventually found it. Though from that point on I always had a book with me everywhere I went. -
Reading for Socialization
As I got older my friends and I really began talking about books and their implications in the world which has really deepend my love and appreciation of reading. -
Going Digital
I got my first kindle reader for my 28th birthday. From that time on I have slowly moved from paper books to reading digital books and listening to audio books. I still read paper books but in all reality the majority of the time I read digital books.
