The Key To The World by Elizabeth

The Key To The World by Elizabeth - July 2016 Scholarship Essay

The most important lesson I ever learned from a teacher was how to read. More than any other skill, knowledge of reading has shaped and guided my life.
I was homeschooled from the beginning, and my mother, who is a teacher by nature and training, taught me to love the written word. Stories were always somewhere around our house, whether they were contained between the covers of a book from the library or being crafted out loud around the dinner table. Reading itself, my mother tells me, did not come easily for me. I struggled to make the connection between the shapes on the page and sounds and concepts. My only clear memory of learning to read is my own ‘Helen Keller’ moment. I was staring at two letters next to each other: ‘u’ and ‘p’. Above them was the picture of a small boy holding onto the string of a balloon and floating off into the sky. And suddenly it made sense. The two letters were next to each other because they formed a word and the word meant the boy was going up. “Up!” I shouted excitedly.
“That’s right!” my mom said, and, from that moment on, words made sense to me. I just had to figure out what they were. One by one the other pieces of learning to read fell into place and I could not stop reading. I wanted to know everything. I finally had the key to the rest of my education. Thus reading taught me everything I know, from math to history to science.
The love for reading my mother instilled in me, by first reading to me and then by patiently teaching me how to read on my own, has only continued to grow and develop. Reading has not only helped me in my academic life but it has also informed my interests and hobbies. I was obsessed with Greek and Roman mythology while growing up, as well as with Anne Frank and others like her. These two obsessions grew into my love of history and literature. My love of literature, in particular, has shaped my life as it has led to my current course of study as an English Major at Aquinas College in Nashville, TN. As an English Major, I hope to inspire others to cultivate a love of reading. I do not know yet whether that will be through teaching or becoming a librarian (or perhaps through some other means), but reading has the capacity to open the doors to the world for those who hold the key. And I would like to be there when they cross over the threshold.