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My Earliest Memory
I learned English when I was around three years old from my parents and my older brother, Kushtrim. We would practice my English skills every night before going to bed. The only thing I can remember at that time was that I had trouble remembering what and where the belly button is. Since I had an outie belly button then, I used to think that it was a penis because I took baths with my brother. So I would go around telling people that I was a boy and proving it to them by showing my belly button. -
Reading Children's Books
When my English began to improve, my brother and I would always read the few books we had over and over again. Our favorite book was called "Rainbow Fish" because we liked how there are so many different colors. But every time we slept over at my cousin's house we read Dr. Seuss books, which was fun because he had so many of them. -
Dinosaurs
In the first grade, my teacher, Mrs. Turner, taught us a lesson on dinosaurs. She then assigned us a project, which was to draw a picture of our favorite dinosaur and write about it. I drew a Velociraptor and wrote about how cool I thought they were. We then had to present them in class, and she liked mine so much that she wanted to keep it. Since then all I would ever read about was dinosaurs. I even had dinosaur sheets on my bed. -
Comics
When I was five years old, I went down into the basement and looked through all the stuff we had in boxes. There was one thing that caught my attention the most, and it was a tall filing drawer. I opened the drawers and found a bunch of comics. Later, I asked my dad about them and he said that he collected them when he was younger. He also let me read a few of them, and "The Far Side Gallery" comics were my favorite. But I also really enjoyed reading "The Dark Knight" and "Dare Devil" comics. -
The Library
When I was six years old, my dad took me and my brother to the public library, in Aurora, Illinois, for the first time. I remember thinking how cool it was because there were so many books, and there was even an area for kids. The only books I checked out were dinosaur books, and "The Far Side Gallery" books. I would read all the books I got from the library front to back everyday over and over again. I really loved reading about dinosaurs and comics. -
Letters to Mrs. Weiffenbach
At age seven, we moved to Milton, Wisconsin, causing me to skip the last three months of my second grade year. And I promised my second grade teacher that I would send her letters. Once I attended third grade, we had to all write in cursive. And I was the only student that hadn't learned that, so I had to stay after school with my teacher everyday until I mastered writing in cursive. Then, I sent a letter to Mrs. Weiffenbach written all in cursive, and she said that she was very proud of me. -
"SpongeBob"
During my fourth grade year of school, I experienced my first scholastic book store. It was fun because there were so many books and accessories to buy. Since I loved to watch "SpongeBob Squarepants" on TV, I only bought all the "SpongeBob" books. I even bought the all the coloring books too. -
Battle of the Books
In fifth grade, there was a book competition called Battle of the Books. Each fifth grade class had to participate, and we were put into assigned groups. Each group had to read five books, and we had to be quizzed on the books as a group competing against the other groups. I was the leader for my group so I had to answer all the questions. However, no one in my group read any of the books. So I was basically on my own, and we ended up winning first place against all the other classes. -
My First Essay
In sixth grade, my teacher had assigned us to write an essay about any famous figure. This was my first essay that I ever had to write so I wanted to try really hard. At the time, I was really into playing the piano. In fact, I taught myself how to play when I was ten years old. So I decided to write my paper on Duke Ellington, who was a famous pianist. My teacher liked my essay so much that she took a copy of it and saved it to show it as an example for her future classes. -
"Schooled"
When I was twelve years old, I checked out a book from the school library called "Schooled." This was the first chapter book that I had really enjoyed reading because it was very different. At the time, I didn't really read much because I thought it was boring. I was more of an artist. I loved to draw, and still do. But this book got me to enjoy reading and open my mind more to reading other books. -
Children's Book
In 7th grade, my class had to write a children's book for an assignment. The book I wrote was about a bear and his journey to find honey for his family. My teacher told me to register my book to a children's book competition because she thought that I had a chance to win. So later, I found out that I actually one second place out of like eighty other books. And my teacher had to take a picture of me with my book and prize to publish it in the newspaper. -
Edgar Allen Poe
I started reading Edgar Allen Poe poems when I was in seventh grade. However, I found this book in a pile of my dad's old books later on. I used to read it every night before going to sleep, and sometimes I would even get nightmares from some of the readings. This book consists of many of Poe's well known poems and tales. I would even read the same thing more than once just because of how interesting the poems/tales were. They gave me a strange vibe, but I liked it because it was different. -
Eighth Grade
I experienced many literacy events this year. I also read the most books this year than the past years. I remember reading books like "Fahrenheit 451," "The Outsiders," "The Book Thief," "Unwind," "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," and many more. But I couldn't really get into "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" because I didn't like the way it was written. Out of all of these books, though, I really liked reading "Fahrenheit 451" because it was very descriptive and futuristic. -
9th Grade
One thing I remember most about my freshman year in high school is when we had to read "Romeo and Juliet." My class was full of troubled students so it was hard for us to read the book because everyone kept on making fun of it. So instead, we had to watch the movie. But we couldn't even finish that either because no one could take it seriously. After that, we were assigned parts to the play and did that instead. -
My First Magazine Subsription
There was a fundraiser going on at school, and it involved selling magazine subscriptions to people. I ended up buying a subscription for "National Geographic" because I was interested in the content. I kept the subscription for a few years and just stopped paying for it. But I did enjoy reading the articles in the magazines. -
"Othello"
In tenth grade, my class had to read "Othello" by Shakespeare. I didn't really like reading it because I just couldn't get into it. I wasn't a fan of Shakespeare and the plays he wrote. But what made me like "Othello" was when we had watched the movie. My teacher would always pause it and compare one of the actors to one of my classmates and make fun of them. I never understood what the story of "Othello" was until I watched the movie. -
My Football Essay
When I took AP English in high school, my English teacher told us to write an essay on anything that has to do with football. He gave us a month in advance to write this. So I had a lot of time to think. I ended up ranting about how football isn't looked at as a sport anymore, and how the players aren't loyal to their teams. It took me about a week to write to make it perfect. After my teacher read it, he took me out of class and asked if I had plagiarized it. He couldn't believe I wrote it. -
World Literature
I took World Literature during my senior year of high school. I read all kinds of interesting things, and learned about many authors. One book that I read was called "Siddhartha." It took me a while to get into reading it because I was not familiar with the Indian culture, and it was worded differently than most books. But I actually really liked it because it was a about a man wanting to achieve enlightenment, and it described all the things he has experienced. It is also a true story. -
Church on Sundays
My junior year English teacher, Mr. Churchwell came up to me one day at school asking me, "If the Bears or Packers never existed, what team would you root for?" And he gave me a piece of paper to write my response on. Mind you this teacher has a side job of writing sports articles for the Walworth County Newspaper. After a few days, I gave him my response. He then published it on the newspaper, which was pretty cool because I was the only student he had asked for an opinion on. -
British Literature
This was my favorite class during my senior year. It was the only class that had me say, "I love to read," because we read so many great short stories, poems, and books. In fact, my favorite book at the moment is "Animal Farm," which was one of the books we had to read for class. I loved how each animal was a symbol of a real historical person or group. It was very well written, and it caused me to read more of George Orwell's material, such as "Shooting an Elephant."
