Ever since Isra was young she loved listening to her mother's soothing voice as her mother read her fascinating novels that transported her into another world. This love for hearing novels later evolved into a love for reading novels. Isra does not recall learning to read, so she assumes it happened at a young age. People read for so many different reasons, including entertainment, education, and requirement. To be a good reader, someone should read often and read critically. Isra began to dislike reading in the fourth grade, when she was forced to read novels she did not like. Reading material that she did not enjoy was the hardest part of reading for Isra. But, in the sixth grade she rediscovered her fascination of reading through dystopian and mystery novels, especially ones with strong female characters, like The Nancy Drew series and The Hunger Games series. While she read these books, reading became much easier for her, since it no longer felt like a burden and instead she felt exited to read. Now that Isra is a senior in high school she wishes she could have more time to read for pleasure. Isra reads for a couple of hours every day, but this is usually reading a textbook or required reading for class. She has a long list of books she wants to read eventually. The list has developed from talking about books with friends, or even strangers, from going to bookstores and reading the back summary of books, and from authors Isra likes publishing new books. Isra looks for certain qualities in a good book, which include; depth of the readers thoughts, interesting perspectives and philosophies, and something new, something that she has not seen before. Most importantly Isra wants to read books that make her think, that make her question the world around her. Isra loves reading, and hopes it is something she will continue to do for the rest of her life, and possibly even pass it down to her kids, just as her mother read to her. Isra began writing through school but never considered herself a writer until the seventh grade when she had an amazing, inspirational english teacher. People write for so many different reasons. People write to let out their feelings and emotions, to send a message, to communicate, to leave a mark on the world, to organize their thoughts, and the list goes on. In order to write well, someone would have to read a lot, and practice their writing a lot. Additionally, they would have to understand grammar well and revise their writing. In that seventh grade english class, Isra discovered she loves to write poetry. She learned poetry is not a rigid set of rules to follow, instead it is a fluid form to express your ideas. Furthermore, Isra enjoys writing about her opinion, especially on issues she feels strongly about. Isra decides what she will write about by simply writing what is on her mind, what she wants to let out, what she feels deep down. She tries to channel those emotions into her writing. As a writer Isra benefits the most when the responses to her writing are honest, she likes to her what she did wrong, and it would not hurt to mention what she did right too. At home, Isra writes fairly infrequently, she writes when she feels she wants to, which could be everyday of the week or once a week. In general, Isra has always had a dilemma with writing because if she writes what she truly feels, she is too afraid to show it to anyone, so the writing that other see, is not truly herself. |