SunandStars
Coley, Andrea

ANDREA: I titled my literacy story, "How I Became one of the Suns and Stars". As a child I can vaguely remember the bedtime stories that my father, mother, and grandmother would read to me as a child. I loved the fairytales, fables, and nursery rhymes. In school, learning to read on my own was difficult due to my introversion which worse back then than it is now. In the first grade I was placed in the red group where the other students were having a difficult time also learning how to read. The group called the Suns and Stars consisted of the smarter kids and I longed to be one of them. After my dad discovered I was behind in school he began to spend more quality time with me at home. I improved in class and my teacher Mr. Turner advanced me and that's how I became one of the suns and stars. I was lucky to have my father there to help me. He worked the night shift and was willing to sacrifice his sleep in the day time to tutor me. I'm from a low income family so we couldn't afford a tutor at that time and a couple of hours after school wasn't enough for each subject, math, science, social studies, and language arts. Today I'm giving back by working in the university writing center at UALR by helping others improve their writing, reading, comprehension, as well as technology skills as they journey towards achieving their degree. Many of the students in the writing center had some of the same issues that I had as a first grader. I had an advantage as a child because my father was willing to work with me. I'm going to end my story with one of my favorite quotes by F. Scott Fitzgerald from "The Great Gatsby". "Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you had." And that's the end.