Melissa's reading journey began with her mom. When she was young, her mother was intent on Melissa learning at least a few words before starting school. One day, she brought Melissa a few small books, sat down with her, and patiently helped her sound each word. When Melissa read her first book, she felt like entire worlds opened up to her. Suddenly, she could experience a whole range of emotions and adventures without leaving her home. Reading was also a great friend to her on nights when sleep was not. However, sleepless night were not the only time that books lured her. Whenever Melissa has a bit of free time and an especially intriguing book, she loves digging into the pages. She feels this is the best way to become a good reader, to love it. Reading does not have to be complicated. In fact, it's fairly straight forward. A person only has to read what they want to read. If you follow this rule reading very easy. However, there are a few hard parts in reading. At times, Melissa does not get to choose the book she has to read, and although some of the books that are chosen for her are amazing, others are not. During especially boring books , she frequently reads them too quickly, causing her to not understand what she read at all. Books that Melissa enjoys are ones with complex story lines and stories within stories. These keep her interested in what she is reading. In the past, Melissa would read all the times, but lately she has had some difficultly finding time to read with all her other activities. Despite this fact, Melissa feels reading is fantastic because it allows all that participate in this activity to feel. To feel happy, sad, elated, and jealous; whatever they are in the mood for.
Melissa learned to write her letters in school and her stories from emotions and experiences. She feels people write to express what they are thinking to the world. To write well, all a person needs is knowledge and an inspiration. Melissa likes writing about past experiences though journaling, but also loves writing about what comes next. The future. The unknown. Her inspirations usually come from fantasies, past experiences, and other pieces of writing she admires. Constructive criticism helps Melissa fix mistakes in her writing, and positive comments help her push on. Melissa writes to pass the time only occasionally, but she does finish literary assignments at home. Melissa does not add enough feeling to her writing and her characters always end up as shells of what she wanted. She is optimistic though because even in the dullest of shells, the ocean can be heard. |