Essay Week 10: aixelsyD

For this week's essay blog post, I am choosing to write about my first experience as a reader. I can remember when I was in pre-school at St. Joesph's elementary school where I was given my first school based book. I opened the large colorful front cover that depicted an image of a teddy bear sitting in a rocking chair with a book on it's lap and began to look at the words on the page.

As my peers began to read their books aloud, I sat in shame. The words on my book were unfairly scrambling themselves into incomprehensible inscriptions. When I looked really closely and slowly. they would occasionally return themselves to their proper orientation. I felt dumb.

My teacher had each of us kids line up across the rug and read the first page of our books out loud. One by one, my peers proudly read their lines and my anxiety grew. When my turn came, I shakily read my first page aloud and was met with laughter. I read what I saw and what I saw was jumbled words that formed a sentence that sounded something like Yoda.

(Dyslexia. Web Source: Wikipedia)

This fear of reading, books, talking out loud, and even math continued on until I was eight years old. My third grade teacher noticed my language handicap and recommended that I participate in a special reading program at Northeastern State. My parents enrolled me in the program and my life was forever transformed.

The psychology professors at the college told me that I have a disability called dyslexia that causes me to mix up my letters, numbers, and speech. They created a plan that was specific to my needs and had me meet with them three times a week for a couple of hours a day.

Now, I don't remember much of what we did, but somehow they taught me how to work with my dyslexia. Within a couple of months, I went from being a very shy mediocre student to the top of my class. It was as if something snapped inside of my and released me from my language bonds.

Of course, I still struggle with certain aspects of my dyslexia, but I have learned how to slow down and really try to understand what I am reading. Any mistakes that I make, I laugh off and move forward.

Storytelling for Week 10: The Little Captive

Elki peaked over the bank of the river and stared at the dozens of darting fish weaving their way through the rocks. Elki was mesmerized by their sparkly scales that reflected the sunlight in different directions each time they moved. He leaned further and further over the bank to get a better look until SPLASH - Elki tumbled into the icy cold water!

Elki waved his arms frantically as he tried to keep his head above water.

"Mo..m! He...l....p! Dad! ....Plea...se!" Elki chocked out as the river water viciously filled his lungs and impeded his speech.

It was no use. Elki had wondered too far away from his family. They could not hear his cries for help.

Suddenly something took hold of the young boy's ankle and ripped him beneath the surface. Elki's wide fearful eyes watched the outline of the sun shrink before him as his was pulled deeper and deeper into the depths of the river. Out of fear and lack of air, Elki slipped into unconsciousness.

(Sun Under Water. Web Source: pixabay)

When he awoke, Elki reached his palm towards his sleepy eyes to rub off his slumber. The young boy was startled when his arm moved much slower than he was used to and when he touched his face, it was wet! Elki sat up and looked around frantically! He was still under water!

Elki's eyes settled on an older looking woman who was calmly staring at him from a chair in the corner of the room. She was unlike anything he had ever seen before! The woman's hair looked like green moss as it floated around her face. Her skin was a very pale - almost white - shade of blue. Around her eyes and down her arms and legs were tiny opaque scales that reflected every color in the room. Finally, sitting on her lap was a tray of food.

When the woman noticed that Elki had finished studying her and his eyes had found the tray, she lifted it up and offered it to the boy.

"My dear Elki, you will feel much better once you eat. Here, take some food," the woman said gently.

It was not her voice that made Elki feel uncomfortable, but rather her large greedy eyes. Elki took the tray and slowly took a bite of food. With that bite, his fate was sealed. He could never again leave this river and return to his family without losing his life. He was forever with the wakanda's wife.

Author's Note: My story this week is based on the Native American story, The Wakanda, or Water God. In the original, there is a young boy who falls into the water while he is playing. His parent's, who of course are very distraught over this, mourn the loss of their son and hire two men to go into the water to retrieve their boy. The two men find the boy still alive, but in the care of the Wakanda's wife. She tells the two men that they boy can never again leave the river without dying because he as eaten the food of the water god. So for my retelling of this tale, I gave the boy the name Elki, which means "hanging over the top," and told a portion of the story from his prospective. I wanted to end with him still being in the water versus taken out of the river and dying as he did in the original story to leave room for the imagination to create a new ending of the boy discovering a new life beneath the surface.

Bibliography:
"The Wakanda, or Water God," by Judson from the Unit: The Great Plains

Reading Diary Week 10: Great Plains

Wakanda, or Water God: I had a bit of trouble finding the moral lesson behind this story. It was a little difficult to read because of all of the "they say" phrases. I thought that it was interesting that the family would rather risk their child's life to have them back home than allow the child to live in the river without them. It could be interesting to retell this story from the child's prospective.

The Spirit Land:  This story sounded a lot like the biblical story of creation only this version used the crow as the vessel for how the earth came to be.

Coyote and Snake:  This is another classic case of pride and it's consequences. If the coyote had heeded the snakes warning and stepped two feet lateral to the snake, he would not had suffered. I do not like the ending of this story though. Yes, the coyote learned a lesson, but he did not live long enough to grow from it.

Ictinike and the Turtle: The very end of this story made me giggle. Ictinike was not mad that the turtle meat was gone, but rather that he did not remember having eating it although he assumed that had to have been the case!