Language and Literacy Narrative Draft :
Recently, I was made aware of the subtle yet significant differences between my peers and me.
From an early age I was deprived of the traditional home environment that most children enjoy.
The absence of both parental figures to care for and nurture me. The absence of a mentor who
could guide me through my journey from childhood to adolescence. Although I was put into
possession of my grandparents (for whom I’m entirely grateful for), they were older and
physically lacked the ability to keep up with the hyperness’ of a child. The abandonment of my
parents sprouted and gave way to a plethora of psychological issues, ones that I’m still discovering today.

The first few years of my life were turbulent. My parents frequently fought and struggled
financially, which compromised the stability of a permanent home. I recall fragments of the
various homes as I was passed from one relative to another. Eventually, my parents could no
longer support me—my mother was sent to prison, and my father was deported. I was ultimately
taken in by my grandfather and his wife.

During my early childhood, from the ages of five to nine I was energetic and happy, I
enjoyed school and still remember playing in the playground, on the monkey bars, going down
the slide. All of which was excitingly full of play, however it was until the age of ten which I
began to question my home life situation. Questions like, why don’t I live with my mom or dad?
Why had I never developed routines? What happened to my mom or dad? Where are they? Why
am I different from everyone else? Little by little my grandparents broke the news to me about
my family and how I ended up in their custody. It was extremely difficult for me to adjust to my
new discoveries; it destroyed my childhood and marked the beginning of my coming to reality.

I vividly remember sitting down at a playground bench watching other kids participate in
fun activities with their friends and family, I can’t exactly remember what was on my mind at
that moment in time, however it was probably something about my broken family and how I
didn’t have the respective role models to teach me about sports or about how to talk to kids my
age. I felt incredibly mature for my age, I felt as though I couldn’t have a normal conversation
with kids my age because I had experienced a lot more trauma compared to others. As a result, I
had developed behaviors such as anxiety ,fear of abandonment, lower academic achievement,
depression, difficulty socializing, and attachment issues.

By age eleven, I just saw school as a waste of time,
and something I had to attend to satisfy my grandparents. My academic performance had met a severe decline, I began sleeping in
class, skipping, and missing assignments that I found bothersome. Due to my carelessness for
school, I didn’t really make any friends in school, so I found my oasis in playing videogames,
games such as CSGO, Rust, and Call of Duty, projecting my anger onto random people in an
online lobby of a videogame.

Spending countless hours grinding away playing games was a way
to divert my attention from reality. It was my way of coping with my unusual circumstance. But
for some reason a lot of the people that I connected with online also had some unusual childhood
or upbringing as well. A connection formed between these faceless voices and me from which I
only heard through a headset, I felt like I wasn’t alone.

At age thirteen, I woke up one morning to the sound of my step-grandmother crying as
she delivered the news of my grandfather’s passing. The moment felt surreal, as though I was
consumed by a vast, pitch-black void. My surroundings were swallowed by darkness, eerily
silent, with everything I had ever known seemingly miles away, lost in the distance of this
emptiness.

The man of the house, the man who essentially filled the shoes of a father had just
passed. What does one even do in a situation such as that. I was a total wreck, just as I was
getting better with my psychological issues, I plummeted into a hole of depression and isolation for months. I attended some counseling sessions to help me with my emotions and I think they
helped out.

The turning point in my story came when I moved to a new school for seventh grade. On
the first day, the teachers assigned seats alphabetically, and I found myself sitting next to a
strange-looking kid. To my surprise, the same thing happened in my other classes—without fail,
we were always seated next to each other. Naturally, we started talking. It turned out that he had
just moved to the school too, and like me, he had no friends. We were both completely new, and
he happened to play the videogames that I enjoyed playing as well, which created an instant
connection. He was this weird quirky kid who I found comfort in talking to. We bonded that
entire year and became best friends; he taught me the importance of trusting one another and
introduced me to his other friends. It was he who had lit a light at the end of my perpetual dark
tunnel.

By the time high school came around the colors of life began to come back, I saw
everything for how it was and stopped looking back at my past monochromatic lifestyle.
I began going out more and making new and exciting friends. I fell in love with happiness,
and didn’t ever want to be sad again. I took every opportunity I could get to put myself out there and meet
different people, including people who I thought were weird and had nothing in common with
me, because that’s how I met my best friend. I found happiness in just living and breathing,
occasionally people ask me why I look so happy all the time and does anything ever bother me.
The truth of the matter is that I’ve just been through some tough shit, which has reinforced me to
appreciate the little things in life.

Although I still grapple with some of the emotions and behaviors shaped by my early
years, I’ve learned to channel them in healthier ways. Where I once felt overwhelmed by fear and
insecurity, I now face challenges with a greater sense of calm and confidence. Through therapy
and personal reflection, I’ve found ways to manage my emotions, allowing me to form deeper,
more trusting relationships.

Receiving psychological therapy shouldn’t be something that people should fear, simply because
it will make you look weird, therapy shouldn’t be stigmatized and should be made normal. It’s
apart of being human to encounter challenges, often some of those challenges are difficult to
overcome by oneself, attending therapy can help with such. It’s only that we recognize our
problems that we can finally get over them, my childhood upbringing is something that I
frequently try to brush over and forget, It still aches me to this day, about how I couldn’t have a
normal upbringing with a mother and a father, however I feel an immense amount of joy
whenever I think about how much my grandparents had sacrificed for me. But it’s essentially
what makes me’ me and that is amazing.

It’s time we start embracing our differences instead of confining them out of fear of
unexpected reactions from society



Rhetorical Analysis Essay Draft :

The innate oppression towards change or difference is embedded within the human
psyche. Through years of evolution, we have been blessed with the capability to detect and avoid
dangerous situations through emotions such as fear and anxiety. However, it is the way we
express these emotions that can be extremely dangerous to our own individuality and progression
as a society. When in a state of equilibrium or safety, our body naturally oppresses the thought of
change and refuses to accept what is new, due to the possibility of an unknown outcome. While
self-expression is essential for individual identity and societal progress, deeply ingrained fears
and biases reinforced by family, friends, and academic institutions act as forms of oppression,
discouraging personal growth and change.

In the spoken word essay, 3 ways to speak English (2014), author Jamila Lyiscott,
American author and scholar, asserts that societal expectations that create a standard or proper
form of English are stripping individuals of their cultural identity and ability to express
themselves freely. She supports this claim by first demonstrating her degree of linguistic
knowledge and practice by revealing her three ways of English, then evaluates the societal biases
that criticizes and removes credibility from nonstandard English speakers, finally she encourages
her audience to recognize linguistic diversity as a way of cultural expression. Lyiscott’s purpose
in writing this is to promote an inclusive view of language, one that embraces diversity in order
to challenge the standards imposed by societal biases. Lyiscott presents her ideas through an
assertive tone, which emphasizes her desire for a change; likewise, she interprets her situation
with open dialogue, between herself and the characters in her story, further engaging her
audience. Because of Lyiscott’s tone and inclusion of academia, parents, and friends, within her
spoken essay she is attempting to reach an audience of educators, young people, and anyone who
has encountered the complex nature of language in a multicultural society.

Lyiscott only calls herself articulate within the “standard form” of English, which is
spoken using conventional grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary. However, she continues to
argue her ideas by switching her dialects between that of language around friends, home, and
school. This is ironic because This is ironic because, although society values only Standard
English as articulate, Lyiscott’s ability to seamlessly switch dialects demonstrates her linguistic
skill and cultural adaptability. Society’s limited perspective forces her to downplay her true self
to fit a restrictive definition of being ‘articulate.’ This subtle form of oppression, reinforced by
family, friends, and academic institutions, pressures Lyiscott to alter her way of speaking
depending on her audience, in order to avoid judgment or confrontation.