Literacy Narrative
I remember hearing about it when I was a freshman in high school. I was at orientation when I heard about it. It sounded like something impossible, something beyond my wildest dreams. Winning a competition like this can only be done by someone really smart and I didn’t know if I had what it took.
Three years later, my junior year in high school, word spread of it once again and it got to my ears. It was the Palazzo Strozzi Renaissance essay competition for high school students. This competition was available for select high schools in each of the five boroughs in New York. In this competition, students would apply to enter and receive all required materials which guided them in what was expected and required to move forward in the competition. Competitors had to write a 1,000 word essay on the Italian Renaissance time period. Once your essay was chosen, you would become a finalist and move on to the second part of the competition which is an interview with 3 of the many donors of this foundation. They were the ones that read your essay, they were the ones who interviewed you, and they were the ones who picked who won. The grand prize? An all paid 3 week trip to go study in NYU Florence and travel all over Italy.
Throughout my whole life I was always told I was a good writer. Writing essays was a breeze for me. I was always asked if I wanted to become a writer when I grew up. English was always my favorite subject and it was the class where I always had the highest grade apart from science. However, reading and writing go hand in hand. I hated reading. Ever since I was little I would always try to cheat my way out of reading things whether it was books, articles, or anything that was long and boring. Maybe I didn’t actually hate reading, I just hated whenever I had a hard time reading something since it would discourage me to try harder.
When I joined the competition, I had everything that was required to join- I was an official junior, my dean’s record was clean, I was passing all my classes and I was more than able to get the 2 letters of recommendation that were asked for. Writing the essay was very simple for me, I remember I completed it in less than 3 days. Nonetheless, there was a part that I didn’t pay much mind to which was the fact that apart from the essay, you were required to read these long, boring excerpts from certain books. Doing the readings was important since you’d be asked about them in the interview. The interview was the second stage of the competition, which I was able to pass on to. I remember opening the PDF to the first reading and immediately wanting to give up on it. I opened the other three or four readings I had to do to see if they were all like the first one, which to my luck they were. Not only were these readings long and boring but they were all in early modern English writing. These readings gave you a little more background on the Italian renaissance to better your understanding. These readings were crucial since you would be asked about them by the judges. I was having the hardest time of my life reading them and I was seriously considering dropping out of the competition. Without understanding of the readings, my interview would go horribly and I would have no chances whatsoever of winning.
While talking to one of my friends who was a finalist in the competition as well, I asked him how his readings were going to see if I was the only one who was struggling. I couldn’t be the only one, could I? But of course, I was. He seemed to have everything under control and everything seemed to be going smoothly for him. I have never been one to ask for help for I like doing thing on my own, therefore I didn’t ask him to help me. I went home that night after several days of trying to understand what I was reading, to try one last time. There had to be a way for me to make the text less complex to read. I began searching on the internet trying to find a website or an app that could help me. Luckily, I found a page in which you would copy and paste the text and it would convert it into a shorter, and easy to read passage. I was able to use this for each one of the passages I had to read and suddenly I was back on track again and once again moving forward in the competition.
I am a perfectionist. I always want things to come out perfect and better than everyone else’s and if and when they don’t I could be very hard on myself. Education is always one of the things I have never wanted to fail in. In my head I have always felt the need to be good at everything. When I was having a hard time reading the passages, I felt stupid. Why was my friend able to read them so easily while I was having such a hard time? Was there something wrong with me? I came to learn that there wasn’t. I think that even though I’m not the best reader, I know I have the ability to read and understand passages that I find difficult if I try harder and reach out to all the available resources I have. Everyone has certain things they are good at and certain things they are not so good at, my strength being able to compose an essay without any trouble and my weakness being the understanding of texts I read.
I remember hearing about it when I was a freshman in high school. What felt impossible and what was something beyond my wildest dreams became reality. Three years later I was chosen to go on an all expense paid trip to Italy. I looked back at the time when I almost dropped out of the competition because things got difficult. I looked back at the time where I thought I was stupid because I wasn’t able to understand these texts while everyone else could. I remember laughing about it and being thankful that I didn’t give up on this because winning this competition was the experience of a life time.
This page has paths:
- Final Portfolio: How Did I Grow From The Beginning of The Semester to Now? Laura Lopez Lozano
