How I Learned to Read

I honestly cannot remember when I first learned to read. My best guess would be when I was about 3 or 4 years old. I remember when I was in kindergarten and I was reading several short stories a week. I was reading small novels by the time I was in 1^st grade. When I was in 2^nd grade I was already reading at a 7^th grade level! When I was in I think 3^rd grade I discovered the Harry Potter Series. I read at least the first 5 that year. I had completely finished the series when I was in 5^th grade!

When I was in elementary school and middle school, I was always reading trying to get the most A.R. points. It started in 3^rd grade when my teacher bought McDonalds for the person with the most A.R. points every week. I won that about 6 times that year. I continued to read all the time until the end of middle school. By that time, I think I had read every good series I could think of. I read Harry Potter, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Maximum Ride, The Chronicles of Narnia, and a lot more.

I think the last really good series I read was The Hunger Games. I read the first 2 in 7^th grade and the last one in 8^th grade. After I read the 3^rd book, I stopped reading almost completely, besides reading for school. I think having to read for school pretty much killed my love for reading. I have not read a book on my own in almost 3 years I think. Now I virtually hate reading because of having to read for school. Now when I read anything, instead of reading it and being interested, I immediately think of school. I really need to start reading again.

Greedy Humans

Greedy Humans

Humans are, by nature, greedy and self-centered. Some try hard not to be selfish, but many others don’t try at all. Generous people will go out of their way to be kind and helpful, while others either ignore people in need or take advantage of other people’s suffering. We see a fine example of selfish people in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s short story “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”.

            The couple in the story finds an old man with huge wings stuck in the mud. When they figure out that he is an angel, they decide to put him on a raft in the ocean with a little food. But when they see that the whole neighborhood comes to see him the next morning, they lock him in the chicken coop and charge people money to see him. They find an old angel and instead of helping him, they lock him in a chicken coop with no food to try and make a profit. Talk about selfish.

            If I found an old man face down in the mud, I don’t care if he’s an angel or not, I would try to help him. I believe that a lot of other people would, too. The couple just used him to get money to buy a new house. To me, that is just messed up.

            Humans need to learn to be more generous and care about other people. Would you have helped the old man, or would you use him to make a little money? A little something to think about, huh?

 http://salvoblue.homestead.com/wings.html