Literacy Autobiography - The Barbershop

The Barbershop

It’s a normal Thursday afternoon.  The barbershop is full of people waiting and kids screaming.  I asked my barber how many people were ahead of me, and to no surprise I had at least an hour wait.  So I sat down next to the guy reading the newspaper and played Candy Crush.  I glanced over a couple of times while he shuffled through the pages to see what the news was, but it became a little awkward so I kept to myself.  An hour later, I was still waiting, so I walked to my barber to ask about the time again.  He said “give me about 30 more minutes and you’re next”; the typical response when you’re behind.  

Before taking my awkward seat, I notice a book piled with someone else hair.  I questioned my barber about the book and all he could say was “just read it”.  Now he’s a well educated man, and I have at least 30 minutes left to wait, so I grabbed it and took a seat.

“From N_____ To Gods” the title read, so I know I was probably trotting down the wrong.  I read the first chapter of a glorifying, truthful and down right uplifting book that extended my wait time from 30 minutes to an hour to 30 more minutes!  I was wrong about this whole reading thing.  This book kept me away from the barbers chair for nearly 2 hours!

This “book” kept me in my seat!  This “book” changed my assumption of reading.  Whats so significant is that when I was younger, I would always assumed that when people were reading the newspaper, they were good “readers”.  Because I never really did that, then I also assumed I was on the opposite end of the spectrum.  Or when people were sitting down at parks, they loved to read and were clearly better readers than me.  I’ve always been intimidated by a “book” or more so by a person with a book in their hand.  I felt their knowledge, literacy or intellect was way higher or better than mine.

What I learned from this was to not be afraid to just read something.  I didn’t have to read a newspaper, or walk around with a book in my hand to be knowledgable or sharpen my literacy skills.  All I had to do was pick up a book, more importantly, pick up a book in my spare time!  What I want my grade level students to learn is that picking up something to read, is better than not reading at all.  Whether you’re reading the newspaper, CNN updates, researching your favorite sports team, all of it is reading.