Future Literate Me

For this final blog, I have to talk about the future, something no one will ever be able to predict. Sure, I have many hopes, dreams, and goals in life, but probably not all of them will come true because, as time goes by, my goals will change. I might say that I want to be a doctor or a lawyer now, but I'm only sixteen; I have absolutely no idea what I will become.

In my future literacy, I hope that I will be able to read more than just textbooks, or words located on food menus because I am terrible at cooking, so take out will probably be in my future. I want to be able to read challenging books and actually understand them without having to have someone explain to me what is happening in them. I want to be able to recite and understand well-known poetry the way Ms. Diana can. I remember once when I was watching a show called Criminal Minds, one of the characters was narrating the end of the episode by reciting a famous quote and stating who said it; the narrator described the quote with his own words and translated it in context to the case he was working on. One day, I wish I could quote literature that effortlessly, but it will certainly not be easy at first because I am not really good at memorizing things like names of people and dates. Sometimes the facts get mixed up in my head and I forget who said what exactly; I think that happens to most people at some point.

There is a lot that I hope will happen in my future literacy, but there is also a good chance that what I hope for does not come true. In reality, I bet that I will not read as often as I would like to think and I will probably not be able to quote famous poets in my everyday life, well at least if I don’t watch more Criminal Minds (a good reason to watch more TV right?). If I really want my future literacy to expand, I have to make time to do it—make it one of my priorities. As for the more immediate future, such as tomorrow or a few weeks from now, I do not really see my literacy going very far because I have a lot to do before senior year begins. Who knows, I might just find the perfect moment when I have nothing to do, and in that moment I will pick up a book and just read it.

Cultural Literacy

Recently for my AP United States History class, I was assigned to do a decade interview project about the 1960s. My partner and I had to come up with a list of events that occurred in this decade. There were many events with great significance, but the one event I think stands out the most, or at least was the coolest to talk about, is the Apollo 11 space mission where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin traveled and successfully landed on the moon. Neil Armstrong is known for being the first man to walk on the moon; he took the first few steps on the lunar surface and for this reason, among several other reasons, America became a world power. This mission ended the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. It also fulfilled a national goal proposed in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy in a speech announcing that America would be the first country to safely put a man on the moon. When the United States accomplished this goal and beat the Soviet Union, America was viewed as a world super power.

I think if someone is literate in the United States, he should know about this astonishing event that had everyone glued to the television. The first walk on the moon is a major part of United States history and contributes to American culture because, after this experience, American citizens began to have a lot of national pride.