The Trumpet of the Swan and Me by Elizabeth

The Trumpet of the Swan and Me by Elizabeth - May 2017 Scholarship Essay

I went to a private school from first to eighth grade. Maybe every kid feels different and lonely sometimes, but for the entirety of the first and second grades, I was acutely aware that I didn’t fit in. My parents didn’t attend every school event, I wasn’t helped with every assignment by my family, and most of all, I didn’t go into the first grade knowing how to read. I was in the lower-level reading groups, and I felt ostracized by all the kids who’d gone to preschool and kindergarten at the school. They were already reading books. I didn’t even know what an “author” was. Slowly but surely, my reading skills expanded, but I still couldn’t enjoy reading. I couldn’t enjoy school. According to my mother, I cried before every day of school until Christmas break.
Second grade began, and sometime in the year, I found a book in my grandparents’ house. The Trumpet of the Swan, by E. B. White. I started reading it, and was shocked by how much I could understand and enjoy reading; Louis, a dumb swan (dumb, as in, unable to talk), never fit into his family or peer group until he discovered his remarkable abilities to play the trumpet and write in English. He was incredibly special, even though other swans didn’t think much of him. If there were any parallels between my life and Louis’s, I didn’t notice at the time. All I knew was that I loved the book, and I read it time after time after time after time. Reading was no longer a source of shame and embarrassment, especially since my newfound love of reading was also widening my vocabulary and understanding. E. B. White revolutionized my life, and soon, other books began peaking my interest; I delved into my parents and grandparents basements and shelves for more stories. In the third grade, I found other students who shared my love of reading and stories. In fact, I’d actually sprung to the top of the curve: in the fourth grade, my favorite book was Jane Eyre, and my grades were rising with my reading skills.
Reading has continued to be one of my primary hobbies. By now, The Trumpet of the Swan isn’t my favorite book-- it’s probably not even in the top twenty. It did change my life, though, and foster a commitment towards good literature and pursuing academic success. Look back ten years to those first few years of school, it’s self-evident that reading was key to becoming a young adult, developing friends, and exploring other people’s worldviews and perspectives. Every good book I read seems to change me a little, and I have E. B. White to thank for that.