My Journey of Reading and Writing
Nick Rowley
ENGL 1100.47

Since I can remember, my mother and father have stressed that I should always read books and study for my classes. I also thank them for teaching me to read. My parents have always been there to help me through the thick and the thin. I spent the majority of my childhood in New York. I was born in Buffalo in 1987. My mother read to me every night, and it was always a Dr. Seuss book. My favorite as a toddler was The Cat in the Hat, and I actually still read that book today. It was my influence to start reading. Only now, instead of my parents reading to me, I read the same book to a friend's seven month old son. I started reading at a young age, but the books never changed. I read all of the Dr. Seuss books, from The Cat in the Hat to another one of my favorite books -- One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. When I started school, my grandmother started teaching me the capitals of the states and different countries in Europe. I started reading an atlas for kids and I gradually learned the capitals. At five years old, I could correctly name all fifty state capitals and the capitals of European countries. It wasn't until third grade that I started reading some really good books. I read books by some great authors, like Judy Blume, who was one of my favorite authors from third to fourth grade. One of my favorite Judy Blume books was Freckle Juice. I thought it was the funniest book I’d ever read. I read that book over and over again from the third to the fifth grade.

When I got to middle school, I started to read the dreaded novels. I was so used to reading books with pictures in them that I actually refused to read books when I got to middle school. I read a book that I didn't understand at the time; it was called To Kill A Mockingbird. I read it again for fun (I believe in the seventh grade) and I couldn't get into that book, even if I tried. After that, I started reading books from my dad's collection. My dad read books on the military and past wars. I read We Were Soldiers Once ... And Young, by Joseph Galloway and Lieutenant General Harold G. Moore (Retired). It is about a unit of men belonging to the Seventh Air Cavalry Division of the United States Army during the Vietnam Conflict. This battle was known as the battle that changed the Vietnam War because it was the first engagement between United States troops and the North Vietnamese Army. The men of the Seventh Cavalry were outnumbered by more than five thousand men, and it was the bloodiest battle between the United States and North Vietnamese troops.

I read a book in the eighth grade called Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern Warfare by Mark Bowden, who was an Army Ranger in the Seventy-fifth Ranger Battalion, which was involved with operations in Somalia. The book explains the tactics used during their operations in Somalia and also in Lebanon. This is a compare/contrast story of two completely different operations that mentions different events, from the bombings in Beirut to the raid of Mogadishu that went completely wrong. These were just two of the books that were very good to read and also good for using them to do research papers. During my time at Laney High School, I completed a lot of different types of essays and read a lot of influential books. In ninth grade, the book that I truly enjoyed reading was Homer's The Odyssey. I am a very big fan of Ancient Greek history and ancient military history. In this epic, I discovered that the will of a man to never give up can never be broken. This is shown in the sense that Odysseus wants to get home to see his son and wife, whom he hasn't seen in ten years while he is away fighting with the other Greek city-states in the Trojan War against Hector and the Trojans. Odysseus is a master of trickery because he tricks the Trojans into believing that the Greeks have left Troy when they are actually in the Trojan Horse. Another example is the way he tricks the Cyclops. That is a clever trick he does to rescue his men from the Cyclops.

During the tenth grade, we read two very sad novels: Night and All Quiet on the Western Front. These books go into very descriptive detail about the horrors of war. There is only one quote that I can think of that fits the plots of the books. It is by a famous general named Douglass MacArthur, and it states, "War is Hell." I couldn't agree with him more. By reading the books, I could picture the horrors that the characters see. For example, in All Quiet on the Western Front, the character describes in excruciating detail how bad trench life is, and he states in it that everybody uses the bathroom in the trenches and the bodies were just stacked up in piles of ten everywhere. It gets so bad at the end of the book that all he does is stand up. In Night, Wiesel tells his own story of the horrors of the Holocaust and how he survived. His adventure starts out peaceful and it all goes to hell after that. However, as horrific as that sounds, there is a little glimpse of something good; he never gives up hope that the horror will stop and he will be reunited with the rest of his family. He doesn’t know until later that he is the lone survivor of his family.

High school also forced a bunch of us soon-to-be college freshmen to use our brains for writing papers. Those of us who were required to complete a Senior Project know what I am talking about. The hardest parts of completing that project were writing the ten page research paper and the speech. I thought that the product was the only fun part of the project. I actually enjoyed writing the paper, because the topic I chose was very interesting, and with the assistance of a skilled doctor, I turned an average paper into a work of art. The paper was about anatomical and clinical pathology, which was the study of disease and pathogens. At the time, I thought I was going to college to become a pathologist, but now, I really can't wait until I get out of school. I read a lot of medical journals and medical textbooks, which were all available in the medical library, for great information that helped me in completing the paper and receiving a ninety-two on the paper. The knowledge I received from the instruction of Doctor Brian Shiro and the textbooks that he loaned to me were beyond belief. I was one of the only people at my school who enjoyed completing the Senior Project.

When I became a firefighter, I never thought I would have had to study as much as I did. At sixteen years old, I became a volunteer and I had to be trained in several different fields, including basic hazardous materials (HazMat), basic first-aid, fire behavior, ladders, basic rescue, extinguishers, and several other fields. When I became a full-time firefighter, I had to take courses that were spawned off of those, such as HazMat awareness and operations, and Firefighter I and II. There are more courses, but those two involved the most reading. I had to read the entire North Carolina Department of Transportation Emergency Guidebook 2004 and be familiar with all of the different chemicals and the placards that accompany them. I was shocked at all the different books and manuals that I had to familiarize myself with. That has to be an example of how "practice makes perfect." All the reading I have done for my occupation has really paid off because it has made me a better firefighter and also has assisted me in saving several people's lives. It has made me a better firefighter because I have to assess the situation and act quickly. I would have never thought of taking my time out to assess what situation and to think out a quick plan. By reading the training guides and the numerous books, I have learned that reading the books can only further my safety and the safety of my co-workers while working at a fire scene.

Everyone knows that safety is "number one" in anybody's rule book. I was credited with being one of the best overall firefighters in New Hanover County. My co-workers were so proud that an eighteen year old received the compliments that the older members received before me. It's all about never giving up and always reading the material. Now, if I could only transfer the way I am when I'm working to how I am at college, I would be a straight-A student. I guess everyone can have a dream, can't they? Reading has always been stressed, and I did not think that I would have to read a lot for a job, but I was wrong and I should have listened to my father. He still asks me to this day, and I don't know how many times, "Did you read today?" The truth is that I don't read that much in the textbooks. The workplace is starting to become a place where we read manuals and training guides. Anyone who is thinking of being a firefighter should start reading the books. It isn't as easy as it seems.

Currently, I am reading several different books, and the one I truly enjoy is entitled 100 Decisive Battles From Ancient Times to The Present: The World's Major Battles and How They Shaped History. This book is great and it is extremely hard to put down. Some battles discussed in this book are the battle of Chalons in 451 AD, the battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954, and the Tet Offensive in 1968. Also, the book has accompanying maps and sidebars of information to help further orient readers to each military action. Reading is so important in modern life and is used in basically every way imaginable. We read when we drive, go out to dinner, go to the store, and even when we prepare dinner for ourselves at home, so this is just a brief history of how I started to read and of the types of books I enjoy to read and critique.