My name is Brianna Ocasio. I am a psychology major with a minor in sociology and am currently in my junior year of college. My interests include reading, journaling, traveling, listening to music, etc. I took this class not only to fulfill a general education requirement but to also help enhance my writing skills and public education knowledge. I plan on attending graduate school and in the future taking part in research. I want to become a child counseling psychologist and as we all know college and my future profession requires a lot of writing.
Coming from a Hispanic household where my grandmother raised me and only spoke Spanish, my first language became Spanish. My grandmother never received any formal education in Puerto Rico, and this caused her to always encourage me to take my education very seriously and put it above most things. She enrolled me in Pre-K3 in order for me to get a head start in my education. My mother also bought me many learning books and programs to teach me how to read, spell, count, etc. My grandmother's home has always been the center of my family so all my bilingual family members would constantly be around interacting with me and eventually I learned English.
I would like to thank my 1st-8th grade teachers, school, and curriculum for my reading, comprehension, and writing skills. My teachers always made it a focus to give us as much one-on-one help as they could provide. They shaped me into the scholar I am today. Things like "The 100 Book Challenge" which required us to read every day furthered my knowledge of literacy. Through the years I also became very fond of reading books. From an early age, I fell in love with books and began reading series like The Dork Diaries, Pretty Little Liars, The Hunger Games, Divergent, etc. Any chance I had I spent it reading, watching book reviews, trading books with others, reading analytical essays on books, and discussing them. I even went on to receive a reading award in the 8th grade.
My reading and comprehension skills flourished but I struggled a lot with my writing. It frustrated me a lot due to my ability to succeed in everything else, but it fueled my determination to do better. l eventually learned how to properly structure my thoughts into my writing, and analyze and extend my vocabulary in middle and high school. I learned how to construct my thoughts into the classic five-paragraph theme. Right now, I have slowed down a lot on my recreational reading because I’m always busy with schoolwork, but I take any chance I get to indulge in a good book. My writing has significantly improved but sometimes I still am insecure when it comes to it. I wish to continue to advance my skills because I share a dream of writing a book on the psychology of children one day. My goals continue to motivate my drive to improve my skills and literacy growth, I know college is the perfect environment for these skills to flourish.
