Autobiography week 3

Teresa Espinosa
Posted late with permission. Thank you.

Non-Motivational Reader

As I mentioned in class today, the first time I was required to read a whole on my own was when I was in the seventh grade. I remember it vividly because throughout elementary school, the teachers usually just read to the class or had us volunteer to read out loud. The book was, The Call of the Wild by Jack London. I loved the book and almost kept up with the reading. I did however finish the book but it was on my own pace since the class advanced faster than I did. I was not use to reading on my own; it required lots of discipline and time. I was a very slow reader. I remember the book was about sled dogs and their owner and snowstorms and survival. If I remember correctly, one of the sled dogs was the leader of the pack and was very smart and helped the owner survive in the wild.

My teacher had every student take home a copy of the book and when I got home, my chores were waiting for me. I always had chores to do and my mother was the type to brush off ‘books’ and she supported hard, physical work instead. All I wanted to do was to read on my own. I was excited to do so. As soon as I completed my chores, I isolated myself from the family and read in my closet so they couldn’t find me.

In my family, reading consisted of the daily newspaper or closed captioning on the television set even though no one was deaf. My mother liked reading the captions because my two brothers and four sisters and I were always noisy. We didn’t have books around the house. Our day consisted of chores and sometimes homework. The rest of the day we were to play outside.

The Call of the Wild is the first book that mattered to me because it was the first time the teacher trusted me to take it home and read it on my own. I will never forget that. Although I was excited to read at that point, I lost that motivation soon after because my teacher Ms. Lavaign, had to leave to have back surgery and she never came back. Her substitute has lower expectations for the class and we didn’t have to check another book for the rest of the semester. I was curious and went to the library but quickly got overwhelmed at how many books I had to choose from and left.