Narrative Essay Sample about Literacy

Skateboarding is beautiful, even to the point that I consider it art. The sound of the polyurethane wheels smacking the hard concrete and the feeling of the vibration of that seven-ply plank of wood just feels like heaven to me and could never be recreated. Though like all good things, there are always ups and downs. In my situation, the down was getting injured. During this time, I’ve gone through a very eye opening series of events and I gained a new understanding of writing and the world around me. My literacy journey has become intertwined with my passion for skateboarding. Skateboarding has taken me toward my purpose in my life --architecture. Both have opened my eyes to realize that humans need to find our passion using the space around us and how we bend and use them to our advantage.

During the third week of my third grade year at Connecticut Farms Elementary School, my friend dared me to do an ollie off of a 3 stair set in front of the municipal building of Union. I saw this three stair set the same as any other skater would see it, but this time my nerves got the best of me. As I rolled towards the stairs on a bumpy brick walkway, I felt my heart almost beating out of my chest. When I rolled up to the stair and I set up for my ollie, I ended up chickening out and leaped off of my board, but instead of softening my fall, my feet took the harsh impact and at that moment my heart sunk and I felt a sharp excruciating pain in my ankles. I curled up on the floor in a fetal position and screamed at the top of my lungs from the pain. I had to wait another 20 minutes in pain until I got to the hospital. I soon found that I had sprained my ankles really badly which terrified me for it being my first injury. Even after my injury, I still had to go to school. 

My third grade teacher Mrs. Carhartt, who ended up becoming one of my favorite teachers for a good reason, assigned us a writing prompt. I always hated school all together because all that ever filled my eight year old mind was skateboarding. Different things that I could do tricks over and different tricks I want to learn. It’s all that I ever thought about before, during and after school, but without it, my feeling of excitement fled from me since I could no longer skate due to my stupid injury that I had. Mrs. Carhartt told the class of around twenty-five eight year olds to sit down and pay attention. She then said that we were to spend 20 minutes writing about something that we love. I first thought that it would just be another writing assignment but she told us to write about whatever we loved so of course I wrote about skateboarding. As I began to write, I started to get into a groove and as I wrote, that feeling of calmness and happiness that I always related back to skateboarding, came back to me. This feeling felt nostalgic even though I only haven’t skated for about six days.

I kept on writing like my hand had a mind of it’s own and it felt as if I couldn't stop. That feeling of flowing across the paper as if it was the only thing in the world, made me feel so free and I wanted to feel like that again. This made me end up loving writing and to an ever deeper extent, it made me view the world differently. At first, I looked at buildings, stairs, floors, and curbs as if they were there only for me to skate on and as if the world revolved around the very minute percentage of people in the world who even skate. Thinking of how I could use that piece of the world to my advantage. After getting injured, I started to see everything in the third-person,  and I read the world in much more context than skateboarding. Everything to me seemed as if it was all a double entendre and I began to see how things are placed so specifically and wall for a certain reason such as gatherings, ease of use, for the disabled, or even for aesthetics. Without letting go of the idea of skateboarding, I began to read the world differently. This ordeal ended up helping me discover my passion for architecture on the way there. The way I now viewed architecture gave me a feeling of nostalgia from when I became interested in writing.

Architecture and literacy worked one in the same for me and gave a bridge to connect my passion and an outlet to express. My whole world spun a full 180 when I realized that I wasn’t the only one going through this. At a family gathering after I turned seventeen, over all of the loud Filipino voices in the background, I overheard my aunt tell my other aunts in an exhausted voice,”Yea, Noah is getting bad grades in school now and I don’t know what to do. He’s always gotten good grades but I don’t know what happened.” She then explained that when he gets home and makes music on his computer, his eyes open wide and his pupils dilate. She got confused since he’s always been a good student. I saw myself in Noah the way he saw music as I saw skateboarding.  The next time I saw my cousin, I asked him about school and he told me blandly,”I just don’t want to do it, and I don’t even think it’s important.” Music is all that he ever felt happy and excited about. Everytime he got home, he always rushed to his computer to unload whatever he’s been brewing in his mind all day long.  So instead of lecturing him, I decided to give him the decision. I wanted him to pick his future instead of people choosing it for him so I left him with this last remark. I told him to use what he loves to his advantage and use it for more than what it was. He could use his passion for music to benefit him in the way he writes and explains what he loves but I wanted him to find his passion through love instead of forcing it upon him as an ultimatum. This ended up giving him the motivation to start doing better in school without me directly telling him to do so. He used music in the same way I used my passion for skateboarding to elevate my drive for writing and architecture.

I believe that giving people a choice to find what they love and using it how they want, is what creates something beautiful. For me it was my passion for skateboarding that propelled me further into a better writer and a better understanding of the world. But for many other people, it could be something very different. I felt a very strong connection with Sherman Alexie in her Superman and Me article where she states,”I can remember picking up my father’s books before I could read. The words themselves were mostly foreign...” The way she read the pictures before the words is the same way I felt how I knew skateboarding more than writing. The way she used pictures in a sense is the same way I used skateboarding to heighten my strive for writing and for  soon later, architecture.

 School is very important and finding a passion for it by means of what you love could make this harsh journey easier. Through this, not only have I found a reason to write, but I have also found my passion for architecture by skateboarding, getting injured, and a third grade writing assignment. Passion can drive you into places you could’ve never even known existed and that is the beauty of it.

Works Cited

Alexie, Sherman. “SUPERMAN AND ME.” Los Angeles Times, 19 Apr. 1998, pp. 1–2.