Julian Class 9/13/10
English III Performing Arts


Reading may look easy, but it isn’t really that easy at all. We start to really learn to read as a child, but since there is so much more to learn, different styles of reading, newer, more complex words to know that will help your vocabulary grow. It’s going to take a while to complete, maybe when you graduate high school, maybe when you graduate college. That’s what makes reading not really that easy at all. The process of reading is very time consuming, and you struggle with it throughout your whole life. Where am I in this long process of reading? I’m guessing that I’m in the middle somewhere. I’m in the stage where I ditch the Dr. Seuss books, but I don’t quite have the kind of focus and knowledge to read an adult book on how to make millions of dollars in a terrible economy. If I could read, or wrote a kind of book like that, then that would’ve made me a well known genius. But I don’t know how, nor do I care how. I just want to fallow my dreams. Even though, I still don’t feel ready to be a big time reader, I still have come a long way from trying to practice my name.


Now, my reading journey first began in that magical little classroom called Kindergarten. I remember kindergarten. It was a pretty fun time when we were never treated unfairly. Everyone was a friend during kindergarten. Even a girl or two, even though back then they were considered yucky. I remember our kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Roads I think her name was. It sounded like “Mrs. Rose” to me. She was very nice, she would let us play around in our classroom, and we would hear stories as she would read them aloud to us. She used to read us a “learn how to read” book from Dr. Seuss, who’s actual name is Theodore Geisel. Back then, I used to think that Dr. Seuss was the name of the cat in the hat. I was able to read my first name that time. All of us were able to read our first names back then. This allowed us to pick our Popsicle sticks and insert them in the colored milk box that we wanted. I used to take one girl’s stick and put it in another milk box, and then I would blame it on someone else, ha ha.

My reading journey continued in the hellhole I would call, Elementary school. Though, I wouldn’t really consider it a hellhole, the kids who made fun of me back then were just immature and insecure. They needed something to make fun of. I guess that person was me. Thank goodness my sister was there to help defend poor me, until she graduated from the fifth grade. During that time, I was still stuck in second. I actually met my first crush and my best friend during this time. My second grade teacher, Mrs. Kirschner used to give us books to read. I remember one of those books being magic tree house. Magic tree house books are very good books. They help fuel the imagination. I remember one book being about the siblings who got into that magical tree house, and they ended up in the Wild West. These magic tree house books interest me to this day.

After Elementary school, I finally went to a place where I felt accepted. This place was Middle School. There was a great teacher that I knew there, and he was my English teacher in both 6th grade and in 8th grade. His name was Eric Newman. He still teaches in my middle school, he just doesn’t teach me anymore. I still wish he did. He was a great teacher. I remember reading poems during that time. I fell in love with poetry. People read my poems, and they loved my poems. Even though I found my natural writing talent that time, I still believed that I was here to fallow my true dream, and act. Since Mr. Newman was Jewish, he believed that his students should know about the events that happened during The Holocaust. We read the diary of Anne Frank, We watched a television show about a death camp that has been shut down because the prisoners escaped, and we saw pictures of some exhibits in the Holocaust Museum. This includes the shoe exhibit. This exhibit showed all of the pairs of shoes of the people who died during that time. It was a huge pile. It was a huge pile of shoes.

Now I arrive where I currently stand today. I’m finally in High School. Last year, sophomore year, I focused on this book called “A Perfect Snow”. I didn’t realize that my English teacher, Mr. Williams was handing out the books until a friend of mine told me. I was waiting for a day where he would just give them out at seminar. Whenever I look back to those middle school and elementary school days, I realize how much I have grown, and how these people shaped and build me to what I am today. I finally feel accepted. More accepted then I used to. Now I don’t even feel like I have to fit in. I finally feel like I can actually be myself, and not fall into peer pressure. I feel like I can stand out. I have friends.

This year is currently my Junior year in high school, and I felt that I have grown since my freshman year. I feel more mature then I used to be. This year, I’m really starting to focus in the field of acting. The one thing that I loved since elementary school. I still don’t read much, but when it comes to acting, I’ll read almost anything, even Shakespeare. this year Performing Arts will be doing a show called “A midsummer night’s dream” this is one of Shakespeare’s more famous plays. It’s going to be held in our new black box theatre that’s going to open up sometime in the fall. It really makes me exited. Never have I been so exited for Shakespeare's work but now. It’s a major first for me.

Throughout the lifetime I’ve spent in school, I’ve never been a big reader. Truth is I’ll probably never be a big reader. Sure, I like a good book, but I would just prefer the movie instead. I don’t enjoy having to imagine what the characters look like; I also don’t like to have to think about the setting and their relationships. I want to see the characters, I want to see the setting, and I want to see the conflicts. I’m a movie kind of guy. I can’t help it. I feel that I can just enjoy a movie more than a book.