Innocent
Like all the other students, I also wasn’t prepared to go back to school after the winter break. My English teacher, Ms. G, was distributing laptops and said that we would be reading a transcript online of a podcast. I thought it would be boring like all the others. When I opened the document and spontaneously looked at the title, “Serial” by Sarah Koenig, the word serial, made me think the story would be about mass murder or serial killings. Finally, Ms.G told us the study will be about a seventeen-year-old boy named Adnan, who is accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee. She also told us we would find out whether or not he really killed his ex-girlfriend.
When I started reading the transcript, the different voices spoke to me and the flow of the story grabbed my attention quickly. It made me imagine the scenarios. Adnan, who claims he did not kill Hae Min Lee, and only some of the evidence the police found against Adnan was the fingerprints of Adnan’s on Hae car and Jay’s testimony and Adnan asked Hae for a ride, the day she was murdered. On the other hand, Adnan only alibi a student name Asia McClain, who claimed she saw Adnan at the library and at that time and forensics claim that Hae had died around that time as well. Therefore, in my mind, I was thinking whether Adnan killed Hae or not. Even if he killed her, what is the reason behind it? Or did people put him to jail because he is Muslim, since there wasn’t any real proof to arrest him in the first place? Questions and curiosity kept growing onto me. I read this story impatiently chapter after chapter and wanting to know, who really killed Hae Min Lee and if Adnan says he didn’t kill Hae then if he has been in the prison for seventeen years being innocent. As I was reading it, this podcast made me think logically and emotionally.
After reading several chapters, my teacher told us the podcast was based on a real story and everyone was shocked in my class. Knowing it’s a real story made me feel sorry for Adnan. I read many comments and watched YouTube videos about the case. Some people believed he killed Hae, but then he forgets about what he did, others believed Jay killed Hae, who gave the testimony and he helps bury Hae’s body. Other party believed Adnan was innocent. However, my opinion after reading the chapters that Adnan was innocent to me.
Even though I am not an active reader or reads many books, but when I started reading this transcript, curiosity kept building inside of me. Although Adnan’s story did not relate to me, except that being a Muslim and the principle I follow similar to him. However, his story made me realize I like to read mystery and crime. Therefore, after completing reading the podcast, it's inspired me to read books like Alex Rider series and also interest me to watch a Netflix show called, “ Making a Murder” which is a show it’s very similar to Adnan’s story.
In conclusion, while I was reading the transcript of the podcast, it led me to have a positive experience in many ways. It helped me realize that reading is not actually boring or dull. Reading can be fun and exciting if you find the genres you like. Also, you can think deeply, logically, and reading books can helps you to give confident on about your own opinion. Furthermore, the comments on social media also made me think twice and sometimes made disagree with their agreements. Therefore, due to social media, the story was very popular and influenced me to read it and led me to have positive experiences with books.
Citation:
“Serial: An Examination of the Prosecution’s Evidence Against Adnan Syed.” The View From LL2, 4 Jan. 2015.
