Colored Caps, long itchy socks, gloves, hotdogs, flags, screaming parents, the American pastime. These mark the earliest memories for many young boys. They plague my first memories. They're not all bad. First lessons of working hard to get an applause, or working at all to earn a snowcone or coke. This sets the stage for my first passion for literacy:
Ear to Cap to wrist to watch, a swipe across his chest, wink, and pounding fist together. "Base hit! Make contact with the ball," Coach would exclaim. Cap was the indicator. The signs were unlocked; wrist? means nothing. Watch? Watch! Watch means bunt. Show time!
Reading my coaches signs from homeplate was fun yet challenging, like a mental puzzle. If I unlocked the puzzle correctly, I got the opportunity to lay down the perfect bunt, or steal second base. The rewards were fame in the eyes of the lot of parents, respect among friends.
Upon entering middle school, I also entered percussion. After learning the mechanics of using drumsticks properly, the literature followed. I honestly don't remember the difficulty of learning to read music. I do remember the fruit of being able to, a lifetime of music. Whether on the drumset, timpani, or marimba, sweet music flows from my ability to look at a page of music and breath life into it, a miracle.
I walked into my first serious literature class my sophomore year of high school to read these three lines on the board:
If this makes sense raise your hand.
If you do not regularly read novels or books of any kind, put down your hand.
If your hand is up, you can read.
This professor turned out to be the best I have ever had. Through this exercise, he revealed that even if we have the ability to put letters together to make words, not using the gift voids the very ability; if we do not use the gift to read, it's as if we do not have the ability. Well his conviction gave me the push to read for knowledge and pleasure, and ultimately to writing for the same reasons.
From baseball to drums to reading, I like to think of myself as literate.
This is a great start and I love the tone of it. Your writing style is engaging. I will say that the part of baseball is completely incomprehensible to me as someone who has never played competetively. I think there is an opportunity to talk about your writing process.
ReplyDeleteI really like the description you use in your opening paragraph. I also enjoyed the fact that you talked about being literate in more than one area. My only suggestion for improvement is to give the audience one more story about reading and writing.
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