The Happy Ending in Literacy

      Writing and reading is such a huge part of people’s lives. Someone once told me that English was the most important subject because it’s incorporated into every other subject. In math you have to not only read the word problems but analyze them to see what the question is really asking you for. In science it’s the same thing. In history you have to write essays and short responses. I have always loved reading and writing because I use it as a way to relax. Many of my experiences with reading and writing have in one way or another helped me become who I am today. Experiences such as realizing the reality of the world, finding a love for poetry and excepting the inevitable.

      Seeing as how I am an incurable romantic my favorite thing to read and write about is romance. For me the topic of romance brings me such happiness and peace. Most of my life I saw the world as a horrid place, where young children go to sleep hungry and where people kill one another over nothing. In the romance books I read not everything was perfect but at least the characters got their happy endings. Then I read Jojo Moyes’ Me Before You, a book about a girl who falls in love with a paraplegic man and tries to convince him to not to go through euthanasia. The man is in so much pain and feels that he is a huge burden to everyone around him, so he wants to have a medical proffesional end his pain. It was the first romantic book I had read where there wasn’t a happy ending. Perhaps others may think it was a happy ending but I asked myself “How could you be happy when things don’t go the way you want them to?” I later realized things are not always going to be ideal. So yes, kids go to sleep hungry and people murder other people. I’m not saying this is okay because it is definitely not. But I learned that the world isn’t a horrible place just because its not perfect. Babies are born every day, people work to help their neighbor or someone millions of miles apart away from them and love is not only shown to the human race but animals and the environment. Life is not ideal but it’s not the worst.

      For a good part of my childhood I was petrified of death. Any time someone would mention the topic I would have huge panic attacks. I couldn’t breathe and it was extremely hard to calm down. I was mostly scared because I don’t know what comes after death, if there even is something afterward. In my fifth grade class we read Natalie Babbitt’s Tuck Everlasting, a story about a girl named Winnie who meets a family of immortals and is faced with the decision of living forever or having a normal life. It was a part of the curriculum and everyone in the class complained about it. After we finished the book we watched the movie. Most of the kids didn’t take too much interest in the story. For me it was not only entertaining but I also felt connected to the main character. Winnie isn’t petrified of death like I am but she is scared of dying like most others. In the story the father of the Tuck family tells Winnie, “You can’t have living without dying. So you can’t call it living, what we got. We just are, we just be, like rocks beside the road”. This helped me fear death less. Natalie Babbitt took the idea of immortality and portrayed it as a curse while many others would see it as a blessing. The immortal family in the book wishes that they weren’t immortal. I found that to be interesting because doesn’t everyone want to live forever? I’m always going to fear death but the story helped me realize that it’s something that happens to everyone. Why should I be any different? Whenever my fear becomes too much or I just need to remember this I read the book. I also bought the movie and watch it occasionally. The year later in sixth grade I had to read the book again and it was just as impactful as it was the first time that I had read the book. I think that everyone is in some way scared of death. It’s just that we all have different ways of dealing with that fear.

      Books such as Tuck Everlasting are amazing texts of literature. One of my favorite types of literature and as much as I love reading poetry I also love writing it. I believe poetry is a great way of expressing what someone is feeling and what they are thinking without them actually saying it. This is really helpful for people like me who don’t like expressing their feelings so much. When I was younger I would write short poems about whatever was in my head that day. I wrote poems about feeling sick and birthdays. I wrote a short poem about how stressing school was. Of course, if I wrote a poem like that now it would be much longer. At one point I stopped writing poetry because I hardly had time. In the ninth grade my English teacher had asked the class to write a story, draw a picture or make a poem describing who we are. I thought that this was going to be such an easy task. I know who I am. I’m Mabel Sosa. But what did that mean? I had no idea what to write. I knew I wanted to create a poem but besides that I had no idea what I was doing. I decided to jot down some of my characteristics and things that I hold close to my heart. I ended up picking five things from my list. I chose being a daughter, my love for food, family traditions, music, and being Hispanic. I titled it “Hispanic Chocolate” and I was proud of my work. I went in to school and presented my poem. I received a good grade for it and my friends liked it. However, what I think was most important about me writing the poem was that I remembered how great it felt to write poems. From then on I make an effort to write as much as I can.  

      Experiences shape who a person becomes. My reading and writing experiences have made me a more expressful person. My experiences have helped me grow as a student and a person and I am extremely grateful for that. Jojo Moyes’ Me Before You helped me realize that although things don’t come out the way I want them to it doesn’t mean it’s bad. Natalie Babbitt’s Tuck Everlasting brings me peace when I most need it. It’s an amazing book that changed my view on such an important topic. By writing the poem “Hispanic Chocolate” I rediscovered my love for writing. Reading and writing are two of the best things to happen to me because I would be lost without it.