Posted 1:26 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2023
How Reading Changed My Life--Literacy Narrative
“What is the name of the imaginary line that vertically divides the Earth?” Mrs. Krutzik asked. Prime meridian, I thought, knowing that we learned this yesterday.
“Come on, guys, it’s the one that goes up and down,” nudged Mrs. Krutzik. Puh-rime mur-idian, I repeated, practicing the sounds in my head. After a couple more moments of silence, I gathered my courage and raised my hand.
“Yes, Caleb, go ahead.”
“Pwime mewidian,” I answered. Goddamnit, Caleb. Puh-rime. Not pwime. “Exactly, the prime meridian.” As Mrs. Krutzik continued with her lesson, I continued to practice sounds in my head. Puh-rime. Prime. Puh. Rime. As always, the sound was perfect in my head; however, I knew it would be marred as soon as it left my lips. At the end of the day, Mrs. Krutzik assigned the class my favorite homework: 30 minutes of reading. I knew I would read at least four times that amount when I got home. The walk to my mom’s work and the subsequent drive home both flew by in the blink of an eye. Soon, I was in a world of Greek Gods and monsters as I continued my ravenous attack on Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightning Thief. As I read, the words flowed perfectly in my mind. Each syllable and sound was pronounced exactly as it should be. The difference between me and an orator of MLK’s level was indistinguishable. Ever since I can remember, I have devoured books like I was a starving man. While I was speaking out loud, my words were clumsy and incomprehensible; however, they flowed like water when they were confined to my head. My endless consumption of novels strongly stemmed from my lack of confidence in my oral skills. When I was speaking, I struggled with words like “shirt,” “rowboat,” or “justly.” As I read, words such as “consciousness,” “depravity,” and “rural” were as easy as taking a breath. Although I have read hundreds of books in my lifetime, Percy Jackson was one that stood out from the rest. This novel helped me, like every other novel that I read at that time, to escape from the stress of speaking and pronunciation. More specifically, Percy Jackson helped me gain confidence in my speaking ability and strive to improve in my speech lessons.
Percy Jackson is the first book in a series about the children that Greek gods and goddesses have with humans: these children are called demigods. Shockingly, the main character is Percy Jackson. Percy is introduced as a troubled kid. He never stays at one school for very long, is always having unexplainable events happen to him, and struggles heavily with dyslexia and ADHD. As we start to feel detached sympathy and even pity for Percy, the plot suddenly is flipped. Percy learns that he’s a demigod and the things that have caused him trouble for so many years are now saving his life. His constant moving of schools has kept him hidden from monsters, his ADHD makes him hyperattentive and quick in battle, and his dyslexia is his mind being wired to read Greek. As I was reading Percy Jackson, I had an “aha-ha” moment. Although I knew that my speech impediment wouldn’t suddenly help me fight monsters, I was given a different perspective on my vocal limitations. Instead of getting frustrated and wanting to give up, I now realized that I had to put even more effort into practicing sounds and speaking. When I would typically shy away from speaking because of my impediment, I now knew that I must talk as much as I could. The transition in Percy Jackson from Percy having problems that troubled him to gifts that enhanced him opened my eyes. I believed that, like Percy, I too could turn the biggest problem in my life into something positive that helped me. In addition to my continued attack on any book I could get my hands on, I now applied that same ferocity to speech.
With an impediment like mine, there was no way I wouldn’t have been in speech therapy; however, speech class was only once a week for less than an hour. If I wanted to make any meaningful progress, I would have to practice constantly outside of class. Drawing inspiration from Percy Jackson, that’s exactly what I did. Any questions the teacher asked, my hand was the first up. I didn’t know the answer half the time but that didn’t matter. I wasn’t worried about what I said, but how I said it. I could have answered “triangle” to “2+2?” but if I was able to pronounce the "r," I would be happier than could be. At recess and lunch with friends, I talked about everything and nothing. When my parents asked me how school was, I went into full monologues. Instead of being frightened of words like “drought” and “reprimand,” I welcomed them with open arms. I was open to the challenge because unlike Percy, I knew what benefits awaited me. As silly as it is, reading Percy Jackson changed my life. Seeing Percy, a cool teenager who basically had superpowers, overcome his problems truly helped me overcome my impediment. It made me realize that although I wasn’t the son of a god or being hunted by monsters, I was still plenty capable of controlling my own destiny. I didn’t have to be defined and confined by this disability for the rest of my life. In the years that followed my first reading of Percy Jackson, I have gotten more and more confident in my speaking abilities. My vocabulary has increased and my comfortability of pronouncing unknown words climbs with every page of every chapter of every book. Reading has always been a big part of my life and helping to conquer my speech impediment is just one way that reading has changed me for the better.