Path of growth
To start out my first blog, I would like to mention that English courses put my nerves in a big bundle. I was never the person to be good at writing, reading, or even spelling for that matter. Anything dealing with literature gave me pins and needles. I have had a great amount of trouble trying to learn the techniques and ways to write properly that I had grown to pull away from English and hate the topic as a whole.
During my childhood, I had moved 12 times. One of those moves consisted of living in Canada for three years. This was when I was at the prime learning age for reading and spelling. I learned to read at an acceptable level but when I came back to the United States, in third grade, I had trouble with my spelling. I learned how to spell in Canadian English. Which if you don't know what the difference between Canadian and American English, is that it has words spelt quite differently. For example, "check" is spelt "cheque" in Canadian English. They also like to add the letter "U" in their words too like "favourite" and "colour." As you can see, it was much different and I was thrown back into the standard English without any help or guidance. I fell behind and that's when my dislike for the subject began to exist.
Fast forward to high school a couple years and many great teachers later, this was when I had learned to structure my writing using good techniques. This was eventually achieved with strong efforts and determination. In the end, I still had my bundle of nerves but they were quickly untangled once I knew what I truly was capable of when I began to have confidence in myself.
Writing is tricky, you would think that you could write better with a thousand thoughts roaming through your mind. However, I quickly had discovered what works best, for me at least, was with the help of amazing English teachers that have guided me to become the best writer that I possibly can be. They have taught me that there is no right or wrong way to write. You just have to have two things, an open mind and confidence.
You can't learn without struggle at first. My whole point of this story was to explain that you will struggle at first while learning a new skill or topic. The best thing you can possibly do to start showing progress in a new skill is to first accept that you know nothing, and that is what I did. My younger self would be proud of how far I have grown in the skill of writing. Growth is a bumpy path but confidence is the key to success, and that is how I became the writer I am today and I can even add on to my growth in this class as well.
I agree that learning comes from making mistakes and failing. It sounds cliché but I believe that the best way to learn something knew is to improve from your failures in the past. I am glad to see that you have improved your English skills and I hope that this class can add to that.
ReplyDeleteOne phrase I created within the last year that I have been living my life by is, "The most knowledge comes from accepting your failure and correcting your mistakes." Your story is very unique and has never been something that I looked at as a potential issue for those who move from Canada to the states.
ReplyDeleteI have had the luxury of living in the same town my entire life, so I can't even begin to imagine the struggles you have dealt with from moving so often in so little time, and I would never have guessed that learning a different form of English would be one of these struggles. You do a very good job of showing the lessons you learned from your experience in life, and I am glad that you are able to look back on your growth and be proud of what you overcame.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with "Writing is tricky, you would think that you could write better with a thousand thoughts roaming through your mind". I constantly have thousands of thoughts running through my head but as soon as I sit down to write, I go blank. I have all these thoughts but nothing to write about. Even when I start writing my mind races and my writing ends up everywhere, with no rhyme or reason.
ReplyDeleteHi Lyndsey, I agree with you, writing is tricky. I also was not good at writing when it came to English class so you are not a lone. What I find interesting about you is that you have moved 12 times?!?! I too moved from house to house but that was only 4 times and not to a different country. I find it pretty funny that I get so nervous writing papers, but I feel so comfortable texting. But, isn't texting another form of writing?(lol) I guess the more I practice writing the better I will get.
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