Blog #1 Jake Bustamante

            I learned to read and write in pre-school while living in Charlottesville, Virginia. I was about four years old at the time, and to be honest, I don’t remember all too much of the whole learning process. I do, however, remember when I became a good reader. In the first grade, I lived in Woodbridge, Virginia, and was assigned to read one book a week as a class requirement. Not caring too much for the assignment, I just pulled a book about plants off the shelf and checked it out. You know, exciting stuff. I thought I could get away with just having my brother or sister read it for me and have them tell me what it was about. No such luck, as my mom made me read it aloud to her. I’m not quite sure what happened, but something clicked, and I didn’t have nearly as much trouble reading it as I thought I would. As far as the content of the book, I did not care in the slightest. Ever since then, I would pick up books throughout my pre-collegiate career and come to love such series like The Lord of the Rings and Pendragon. As I got older, I began reading more books written by my favorite author, Michael Crichton. My experience in English classes could be described as heavily involved in the discussion aspect. My favorite English class I took was in my senior year of high school, Honors English 12. The teacher challenged us to become better at arguments, research, and overall discussion. Without Mrs. McGovern’s help, my public speaking would not have been ready for the speeches I had to perform throughout high school. The inevitability of writing longer papers did not become as much of a struggle as I thought it initially would, either. I learned that if you pace yourself and focus on the quality of your research, a great paper is sitting there, waiting to be written. If there is anything I can be proud of in my writing, it is that I know how to make a paper more informative and gripping through vibrant vocabulary. Flow is a different story though. My teacher once described my paper on Beowulf as though it were “written by a squirrel with ADD.” But hey, it was good stuff nonetheless. Although I do not read recreationally as much as I did in my earlier years of high school , I still enjoy writing and editing my peers’ papers if they ask for it. Oh yeah, my dad was huge on grammar and would make my papers bleed with red ink corrections, so I guess it kind of rubbed off on me.