MY LITERACY AS A CHILD

As a child I greatly enjoyed reading, I remember sitting on my Mom's lap in Italy following along to "La Pimpa". I remember seeing the white dog with red spots and being engrossed in the story. Eventually I was able to read by myself! Italian writing is very simple for one who already speaks the language because it is written almost exactly as it is spoken. I was soon able to read more advanced literature and collected a huge bookshelf of fiction and fun books about space as well as many other things. This interest in reading has stuck with me for my entire life and I still enjoy going through that bookshelf whenever we go back to Italy.

As a small child, I was also exposed to some children’s poetry. One of my favorite poems was " Where The Sidewalk Ends" by Shel Silverstein. The poem is about a place where things are better than they are here. The author describes this place vividly, "And there the grass grows soft and white", "And there the sun burns crimson bright', "And there the moon-bird rests from his flight". It connected to me because as a child, I wanted for there to be a place where the sidewalk ends, and where I could free myself from the regular cycle of everyday life.

I believe that everyone needs to have some sort of childlike dream in them, even as grown-ups, and that a simple, youthful imagination is liberating.