Within Rising Cairn, I had read multiple literacy narratives. These included “Expect the Unexpected” by Hannah D, “Blank Screen” by Meghan Mazzochi, “Live or Die” by Paige Hibbard, “‘Is it an Option to Drop Out of Middle School?'” by Hannah Merrill, “Learning the Italian Language” by Joe Kucky, “A Mother Knows Best” by Sarah Robinson, “My Mom Prepared Me for the World” by Alexis Ouellette, and “The Year I Started to Hate Writing” by Hannah Clark.

A literacy narrative is a writing that speaks upon the author’s experience with reading, writing, speaking, or anything that could fall under the literacy category. Quite obviously, the literacy narratives that I read all had one of these subjects within them. But one thing that was somewhat unexpected was that each literacy narrative was much more personal than one may have thought. Though each narrative is very personalized, most of the narratives I read shared some sort of struggle that the author faced, something that held them back from succeeding, later using this to build themselves. For example, in “Expect the Unexpected”, Hannah talks about how she wrote a meaningful college essay for her English class, which she thought was worthy of a high grade. But to her surprise, she had only received a B-, really bringing her and her confidence in her writing down. Hannah was able to realize that no matter what anyone says, she is proud of what she does. She poured her heart out, to show something that she is passionate about; learning that each person’s view is very important. Similarly, in “Blank Screen”, Meghan also had trouble with her college essay in her English class. At first, the essay seemed well written by her heart, but once she had received the final grade, she was quite disappointed. Her English teacher did not seem to understand her, let alone where she was trying to go with her essay. She took this situation as a lesson: “No matter how much advice you can get from even the most brilliant person in the world there is nothing more important than listening to yourself.” These similar narratives show the authors experiencing disappointment, failure almost, in their eyes. but no matter what, they were able to see the possibilities within themselves. In the end of each narrative that I read, the author overcomes their struggles to come out on top.

The one literacy narrative that stood out to me was “My Mom Prepared Me for the World” by Alexis Ouellette. As said before, each narrative tells of the author overcoming a struggle due to literacy; but this narrative uses literacy to overcome a struggle. Meghan writes about a book called “The Little Match Girl”. In the end, a passed grandmother brings a girl up to heaven. Meghan was able to use this book and its messages in order to relieve some of the pain from the loss of her grandfather. This experience allowed her to become stronger from literacy, but in a different way than most of the narratives that I had read. Each narrative is different than the last, each provides a personal experience that means something to the author. They are a view of the author’s mind; there was a reason each person chose that specific experience. Something about that memory is meaningful to them, to be deemed worthy enough to write about. Why this topic? What about “The Little Match Girl” got you through the death of your grandfather? In “Expect the Unexpected”, Hannah wrote about the death of her brother, which seems to be around the same age as when Alexis’s grandfather had passed. Would this book have the same effect on Hannah as it did Alexis? Or would Alexis’s belief in Heaven and religion play a larger role in how helpful the book was to her, compared to if Hannah were to not believe in such things?