The Book Dragon

I have several significant memories about becoming literate:

1. Song- and story-time every night with my mom and brother. I still have the words memorized to "Both Sides Now."
2. Sitting at the breakfast bar of my grandparents' cabin with my aunt, who was teaching me how to spell and write my name. I think I was three.
3. Laying under the stars with my family on "the bump," which was the plot of land upon which eventually my parents built our house. I refused to let anyone talk about the constellation "Beetlejuice" because I was terrified that the Michael Keaton "Beetlejuice" would come if his name was beckoned... of course my brothers thought it was hilarious to scare me with that one.
4. My mom took my brother and I to the library on a weekly basis. I was in love with anything written by Beatrix Potter and my mom and I would sit and read through the books, then she would explain them to me.
5. My favorite thing about the library was a giant dragon/castle that we could play on. There were little nooks in which we could find places to curl up and read our treasures and every so often, one of the library employees would sit with us on the dragon and read us stories. Ever since then, the image of the Book Dragon pops into my head when I think about libraries or my journey into becoming literate.

The list could continue on forever with stories from school, home, work, and traveling. The ways in which I became literate are simply a compilation of fond memories (with the exception of piano lessons...) and what makes literacy exciting is that my experiences still continue to form these memories with each passing day.