Independent Literacy

Independent Literacy

When I went to the movies for the first time with Bobby, the person who I now consider a close friend, I chose the wrong seat to sit down in. Bobby, who has been deaf in his left ear since birth, occupied the seat to the right of me that night. We enjoyed the film, “Meet the Parents” thoroughly, yet the movie is certainly not what sticks out in my mind about that evening. Each time we shared a laugh, or one of us wanted to say something to the other about an event in the movie, Bobby had to swing his head around like some kind of bird so that he could hear my whispers. It was actually rather funny to see him twist his neck that way. I remember him saying to me as soon as the lights went down and the previews began, that I was sitting on the wrong side. I didn’t know what he was talking about until he saw the puzzled look on my face and explained to me that he could only hear out of his right ear, and that I would have to remember to sit to his right to avoid the owl-like movements next time. To his surprise, I had never known that he was deaf in one ear until that night because throughout middle school and high school, he had led a completely normal life. To this day, there are many people that graduated from our high school without ever realizing that Bobby was born with a disability that was life altering. From his struggles, I have taken something much greater than anything else I have ever known: What it takes to become “independently literate” in a society that expects literacy to be a skill that evolves easily, and early-on in a person’s life.

For me, learning to read was simple and fun. Each night, my mother and father sat at the foot of my bed and read me book after boo...

... middle of paper ...

...bby has read multiple books on his own, and is trying so hard to enjoy the process. Sometimes he comes over and speaks with my mom about the plots of these novels, and she is so happy to help him in the process of getting him on the road to genuine “independent literacy.” He still struggles in school, but what matters most is that he is doing the work without anyone’s help, and he is actually reading because he wants to for the first time in his life. I am proud of him, and I think about him often. When I am struggling, I try to think of the effort he has put into his learning process and I attempt to draw motivation from that. We all have encountered barriers in our education, yet Bobby’s was one of the greatest I have ever known. He may not be all the way there yet, but he sure is close to being the “independently literate” young man that we all knew he could be.