When reflecting back upon my experiences of when I first became a literate member of society, was quite challenging. For starters, I grew up in a very literate household with two well educated parents; in addition to having a brother who is almost three years older than me. Growing up, I would see my older brother (and role model at the time), Todd, doing something, and it made me want to do exactly the same thing as him. A major influence on how I became at literate member of the twenty-first century, is due to peer pressure and social conforms.

As a young child, before entering preschool, my parents would have my brother or myself go to our ‘library’ at home, (which we kept in the basement, also known as our playroom), and select a book for that night to be read. We would take turns as to whose room the story would be read in; one night in my bedroom, the next night in his. As a baby and toddler, my mother made sure that there were always books surrounding my play area, and would encourage me to open the book, even if it was just to look at the pictures.

Another aspect of my childhood was the encouragement that I received from my parents, relatives, and teachers to read and write. As a young child, I would always want to take crayons and ‘write.’ This ‘writing’ that I was doing, was more like scribbling lines on a paper, but to me, it was writing. My parents never forced reading or writing upon me, it was a desire that I picked up on my own after seeing my older brother doing it, and made me want to be just like him. If there was enforcement from my parents to read or write, I doubt that I would have had the passion to do so on my own, as often as I did.

When I began preschool, my interest in reading became stronger, as my teachers would read numerous books, daily. While writing this reflective piece, I couldn’t remember all of the details from my early childhood years, so I had to ask my parents, but mostly my mother for assistance. One story that my mother told me, was that when she would pick me up from preschool, I would tell her what story we read that day, and then she would take me to the library and rent the book for a week. I went to preschool for two years, and for both years, my mom would do the same routine. Back in those days, what I called reading, was simply taking the book in my lap and sliding my finger along the words in the book, and then make up my own story (because I didn’t quite know how to read yet).

My kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Vacchio, was a very animated individual, who would always dress up like the characters in the book she was reading us that day. I feel that her animation helped me gain interest in reading books. While in kindergarten, I was beginning to learn how to blend letters together to make certain sounds, and my literacy development was rising. I knew the entire alphabet and the different sounds that each letter made. Another factor that I was coming to realize was the concept of writing. In the beginning of the school year, my teacher would give us a handout that we had to trace the letter with pencil. After tracing the letter by connecting the dots on the page, we then moved to lined paper, where we had to make the letters on our own. Print writing was something that I had to do, because it was valued in school.

By the time I got to first grade, I was able to recognize a lot of words and sound them out. They were mostly high frequency words, such as ‘the, it, he, she, me, I,” and so on. The motivation and desire to want to learn to read stemmed from my kindergarten teacher, but was as encouraged by my first grade teacher, Ms. Schiller. Story time was a regular occurrence in my classroom, and I remember all of the students in my class, sitting on the reading carpet and intently listening to the stories. Both my kindergarten and first grade teachers had a strong passion for reading and writing, and getting their students literate, as best they could.

My second grade teacher, Mrs. Pechar, had a different approach. Her passion was seen when she taught social studies. It wasn’t that she disregarded literacy (reading and writing) as useless or not important, but her background was in history and that is where we spent a lot of our time. To make sure that she was meeting all of the state guidelines, she made sure to incorporate reading and writing in her history lessons. I remember when we would learn about a new famous person, she would have us do a small biography about that person, thus using our reading and writing skills. Likewise, my third grade teacher, Ms. Keroni was very much like my first grade teacher and had her students do a lot of reading and writing in her classroom.

For the remainder of my grade school, I had teachers who strived on getting their student’s writing to be better and help them improve. I have always been good at writing papers and assignments; however, I did struggle a little bit when it came to reading longer pieces of work, as I got older. My mother noticed that when I would be given a reading assignment, it would take me twice as long as it should. She would see me on the same page for a good twenty minutes. At one point, I believe in the summer in between third and fourth grade, my mom sat down with me and read a chapter in a book with me, and she noticed that something might be wrong.

Upon entering fourth grade, my mom talked with my teacher, Mrs. Forte. She told her that she thought I might have a learning disability. My teacher wanted to see for herself, before suggesting anything. She spent a few weeks watching closely over me, and finally came to the conclusion that she was going to recommend me to the child study team to get tested for a reading comprehension learning disability. Ultimately, after taking the tests and awaiting the results, it came back that I had a reading comprehension problem, and that is why it took my twice as long as my peers to get through a piece of work, and yet, still not understand it completely.

From fourth grade, until approximately eighth grade, I received extra assistance. Prior to entering high school, I hated the stigmatism that went along with being ‘classified,’ so I didn’t make it known to my teachers. Fortunately for me, this type of learning style is one that people can grow out of; that is what I think happened to me. I was able to make my way through a reading assignment, just at a slower pace, and with the possibility of needing to re-read it for extra clarification. Fortunately for me, I have since grown out of my learning disability, but at times, still need to read things over more than once to get a clear handle on what is being said.

My parents were pretty much on top of new trends and fads in society, which meant that when I was in fourth grade, my parents bought the first computer for the house. It was kept in the spare bedroom and my brother and I were allowed to go on it whenever we wanted to, as long as we asked. At this early stage of my technological life, the internet was not known to me. While in fourth grade, the elementary school that I attended also started to include ‘computers’ as a weekly special. In this class, students learned how to type on the computer and the simple operating skills needed to operate a computer. When first learning the computer, I was very slow and afraid that if I hit the wrong button, or clicked in the wrong spot, that I would mess up the entire computer. Digital writing allows me to keep in touch with family and friends that don’t live local to me. All of my extended family lives out of New Jersey; aunt and uncle in Delaware, cousins in Maine, Upstate New York, California, Manhattan, Mexico, and even a brother who lives in Israel. There is no way that I would be able to communicate with them, if it weren’t for the advancements in technology, and creating an e-mail account at the age of ten. Once my school introduced the computers class, and my parents bought our first family computer, my life as I knew it was changed.

The foundation that I gained from my parents and teachers, early on, has shaped who I am as a writer and literate member of society. More often that not, I prefer using the digital technology of typing, rather than pen to paper. Once the computer world was brought to our culture, many things were done on the computer. You can now write using the computer, shop online, send and receive pictures and letters from friends and family, and so much more. To this day, I prefer to type something, rather than handwrite it; however there are a few instances that I will pick up a pen and paper and write. For example, if I am writing a letter or a thank you card of some sort, it is more personable to hand write it, rather than type a letter.

During my years at East Brunswick High School, other opportunities with digital technology came my way. I remember sitting at the lunch table in the cafeteria, my junior year of high school, and my friends talking about a website called, Myspace. I swore that I wasn’t going to let myself get into such absurdness, and that I was not going to make a Myspace page. At this point, I knew nothing of these social networking websites, but again, with peer pressure, I caved in and made a page.

Now, almost five years later, wondering where I stand in the peer pressure pool. Well, I still have my Myspace page that I made in my junior year of high school in 2004, and now, I have a Facebook page and an Orkut page. Let it be known that I did not take the initiative to create either of these pages. At my first college, a friend of mine, named Ryan told me about Facebook and one day while we were waiting for our next class, he sat down with me in the computer lab, and made a Facebook page for me. As for Orkut, my boyfriend of one year has an Orkut page, and convinced me to make one. Social networking websites is what my generation has grown up with.

Peer pressure is definitely what has shaped my writing life. With the creation of these social networking websites that have features such as blogs, it is no wonder that my life has become that way it is, today; so needy of a computer. Print writing is a requirement that society puts on us and one that the educational system strongly values. Learning to print was something that I had to do, where as digital print is something I chose to do. The peer pressure that I received from my friends and older brother, forced me to conform to the way society was changing. In order to keep up with the crowds, I needed to take the step and make these social networking websites. With exploration of the blogging network, I am able to express myself more freely. I feel as though digital writing has allowed me to mature as a writer, more quickly then if everything was done in print writing.

I give the internet a lot of credit, because I don’t know what my life would be without it. I am able to write and let my writing be read by everyone, or just my friends. The way the culture is today, so many people have become computer literate, while others are feeling the need to do so, it is only a surprise what the future may present to us. From teachers who pushed me for great penmanship and a creative mind, to the digital technology that lets my voice be heard, my contribution to the 21st century on being a literate member of society is so clear.