Dennis Vasyukhnevich

Becoming literate paper

UWRT-1101-073
9-13-15

An Ongoing Process of Becoming Literate

Literacy? Becoming literate? Till now, all literate meant to me was being good or able to
read and write. Yes, that is part of what it means! So doing a bit of research I figured out that
literacy, or being literate means the knowledge we possess of a particular subject or field, and of
course along with our ability to read and write. Well, having a new definition I believe requires
me to look at my literacy from a different prospective. From my position, I believe I came across
a few drastic accomplishments in life. To some I had no choice but to learn, others to me became
more of a hobby.
I, Me, Dennis Vasyukhnevich, grew up in a midsize family. Being the oldest of five
children and the only boy surrounded by four sisters wasnt easy I gotta say. My Parents are both
immigrants from a small Country in Eastern Europe called Belarus. They moved to America
when they were pretty young themselves. They met and married In Utica New York, and a
couple months down the line, I emerged into this world. Growing up, English was by far the
greatest challenge I have yet faced. Russian is my first language and I didnt even know another
existed till I was about four, four and a half to be more accurate. Math and sports is something
more universal between races, and the ethnic world. I loved sports, and therefore became really
athletic. Soccer was my initiation to team sports. Here I learned that playing sports required a lot
of commitment, physical strength, and communication. Later down my timeline, I played

football and swam on a varsity swim team. One day one of my buddies as a joke, dared me to
join a rugby team. Knowing me and my stubborn personality, I couldnt say no, so I joined a
division II team. To me this was by far the most difficult sport to learn. Rugby is completely
different from other sports, which made me learn that there is in fact no I in team. In Rugby, no
matter how good you are, if you have no team support, you wont get really far. Also it is a very
brutal sport to play. This also taught me the ability to hyper focus. My friend made fun of me,
which only gave me strength to push on. In no time at all, next year came and I was captain of
our now Division I rugby team. Most importantly apart from becoming literate in rugby,
teamwork and communication helped me became more literate in the English language as well.
Math is something I also excelled in, compared to some other students as well. While they sat
and made fun of my terrible grammar, which in fact I still work on very hard today, I solved
equations that others couldnt even possibly fathom. However like I mentioned before, the
English language and all that is to it was and still is by far my hardest literacy test in life, and I
continue to work on it.
I still remember to this day vividly in my mind my first day of kindergarten. I walked in
the halls for the first time without the loving hand of my mother to guide me amongst a sea of
different races and ethnicities. To me this was like living a scary movie in reality. I remember
walking to my little classroom, fighting back tears in my eyes to not embarrass myself in front of
what seemed to me like the whole world. Everyone seemed to know what they were doing and
why they were there, me however I was completely lost and scared. The only English I knew at
the time was, Mom, Dad, and maybe even bassrooom. Thats the only way I could pronounce
bathroom at the time, or at least that is what Im told to this day!! Lucky me I had a very sweet
teacher that helped me and understood that it was difficult for me. However as hard as it was, I

was very eager to learn. At first some of my very very difficult sentences included, I like cat.
Then I got good and moved up to liking butterflies and alligators.
One of my greatest passions was reading picture books. I sounded out words from the
picture books and looking at the pictures tried to connect the sounding of these new words to me
with new meanings. For some I later found out to be completely wrong, for example after
reading a picture book about a bat, I always thought they were called stellalunas because that
was the name that bat in particular had, but I slowly learned. The elementary school knew that I
was new to the English language and without giving me a chance to prove myself stuck me into
ESL classes. These classes are given to students who struggle with English, math and etc.,
however these classes made me feel like a genius but at the same time so dumb. They asked
questions at a (excuse my language) retarded level. I felt like I was learning less my attending
these sessions. So I told my teacher im never going to them again, and got my mom to come to
the school to. She told them in her broken English that she would work with me at home and I
needed to attend regular classes, not decelerated ones.
As I transition between grades, I started reading fictional chapter books. I couldnt get
myself to read non-fiction because it bores me to death. I read so much that my parents would
get upset at me for not eating my dinner or lunch or, That I would soon need glasses as they
would say. With the amount of reading I did, I soon started to see a positive correlation with my
grades. They slowly climbed and climbed. To me the most interesting was the aspect or language
of irony, sarcasm. I like to say that sarcasm is my third language sometimes, and as sarcastic as I
make it sound some have even gullibly fell for it in lower grades like 5th and 6th grade saying,
Ohh say something in that sarcastic language of yours

Speaking was the easy part, grammar was not! When a teacher told me to write a paper
by hand, meant Im getting a bad grade because no matter how hard I tried to proof read it, it
would always just sound bad, so I began to write fake stories of how they played out in my head,
like miniature tales. Then I started to recall moments in my life and try writing a descriptive
autobiography about a certain time. Little by little I began to understand how sentences should be
worded. Of course reading chapter books helped however it wasnt the same as enjoying
someones imagination compared to creating my own. I soon got quite good at writing, I thought
of it as a silent language, something that you only get better at through practice. When I finally
came to highschool, it felt like I hit a cement wall. My teachers started giving me rubrics, pretty
much prewritten plans, molds to which I can pour my idea into. I hated it so much, it mad writing
so difficult. I had to start writing plans to my writing and follow specific guidelines and page
lengths. Have you ever felt like you just cant write anything else for a certain subject? For me it
was the worst. Teacher says write eight pages and I only have like five. I felt like writing wasnt
for me at all, and the worst part was they said it will always be like this even through college, if
we ever made it. Lucky me Im a survivor, so I learned to do as they told me even though it was
very painful. I continued to read, except now fiction wasnt the focus of my mind, it was
knowledge. I began to show an interest in reading scientific studies and new discoveries made,
and the human anatomy.
As much as I want to take credit for learning this literacy, I simply cannot. My parents
helped with what they could, even though it felt that sometimes I was teaching them more
English then they were teaching me. My friends that I made in school and around my house also
played a major role in my literacy learning process. I would like to thank the lord Jesus for
creating books, for without them I wouldnt be talking to you in the sarcastically worded

professional English that I do today. To some who truly understand through what I truly went
through, I am very good at my English language, however to others who were lucky enough to
grow up in proper English families and dont know my origins, Im a slow idiot that might not
know the meaning to a simple everyday word that everyone uses. The most fascinating aspect of
this literacy is that there is always something new you can learn about the English language or
about writing. Like I mentioned before, the English language and all that is to it was and still is
by far my hardest literacy test in life, and I continue to work on it day by day.