Final Draft for Literacy Narrative.

My development into a literary participant in the 21st Century started out in the traditional sense. It moved from simple picture books into the wide world of the internet. The reasons behind these ventures were varied. Some were mandated by schools, others because of peer pressure, and finally to my own desire to keep up with the times.

I learned to read fairly early. At age 4, I was reading Portuguese riddles from these kid-friendly books my father would bring home from our local Portuguese club chapter. Technically, English was my second language, except you really don't know it when I speak. I wanted to learn to read early, because of sheer boredom. My brothers are older, and although my mothers rule was 'only speak Portuguese in the house', they would talk to me in English behind her back just to annoy me. I had no idea what they were saying. So learning to read kept me busy and, in a short amount of time, soon made me love reading and writing. My mom tried her best to keep her rule enforced so we would never lose our native language, but she gave up after I entered Kindergarten at age 5. Halfway through the semester, I was speaking English to everyone in and outside of my home, and was learning to read the language as well. Amelia Bedelia, The Babysitters Club, Pippi Longstocking, etc etc... I read just about everything I could get my hands on, and loved reading out loud to my mom. I can remember that I spent a lot of time reading children's encyclopedia's when I had no more books in the house to read. I found that writing in cursive was fun, and I would write stories after story of made up animals. I played 'school' with friends, using a chalkboard and stuffed animals as our 'class'. We would write notes to each other in class, and my mother would write notes for me to put in my bookbag, my lunchbox, etc. I never touched a typewriter or anything that comes close to technology. That changed when I was 12 years old.

After seeing other familes get them, my parents finally gave in to social conformity and got a computer. With it came The Internet. Everything changed at that point. I signed on for the first time onto America Online, and suddenly communicating with friends was so different. Peer pressure made me create my first screen name, and start my first venture into online communication. But I still stayed away from the computer as much as possible - I always found myself breaking something, or freezing the computer, etc. It seemed that me and technology didn't mix. After I realized it took me about 10 minutes to write one sentence, I put on the Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing software that came with my computer and learned to type like a pro. Soon, I noticed that the computer was able to run even with me as the user. I was becoming familiar and even good with the computer. Soon I was using the basic word processor to type up journals that I once wrote labouriously by hand, and transferred my beloved stories onto Word as well.

At age 14, my development and interest with the computer changed course because of school mandated learning. Gone was the simple days of using the internet primarily to communicate with friends and surf the web. I had my first computer class as a high school freshman. That changed everything. We learned how to use the computer for class assignments. That meant typing all our work on Word documents and using the search engines for research. This continued with me all throughout high school. I was applying to colleges with online applications as well as paper ones, writing essay after essay on MS Word, and sometimes even viewing a teachers page on the internet.

Now in college, I find that I have come full circle. Gone is the peer pressure, the social conformity, and the mandated use of computers. I find myself using the computer because I want to use it. I apply to jobs via the computer, surf websites ranging from finding cheats to Wii games to diagnosing a medical symptom, talk to friends via instant messenger/facebook/vbulletin not because I have to, but because it is easier for me and I want to do it. As a freshman in college, I began not only communicating with friends through just the computer, but also through my mobile phone. I discovered that texting is a way of life. I say full circle because my love of writing and reading is still there. Just in a different format.