My family has always been very big supporters of education, reading and writing. My mother and father both went to college and received bachelor degrees. My mother obtained an education degree from Ursuline College and my father obtained an English degree from Ohio State University. My father, however did not pursue a career in the field of English, rather he took over the family company upon his father's death. My parents are both very intelligent individuals and have strongly encouraged me to read and write throughout my life.  When I was younger my family went to the library about every two weeks to pick out new selections. I went to story time with my sisters there and our entire family always participated in Library Summer Reading program each year.  Every summer we would all try to read many books so we could fill out a chance to win prizes. Also, my father and mother both read to us when we were younger and allowed us to read to them when we were first learning. My mom read to us the two first books of Harry Potter when they came out. I enjoyed that time very much when I was younger and miss it today. My parents both read at home. My mom was and still is in a book club with all her friends and they often go out to dinner to discuss a book they have read. My mother also has read many authors and one of her personal favorites is the Mary Higgins Clark series of mysteries. She often recommends books to me and they are always very good.  It is because of her that I have read some of my favorite books. My father has a more acquired reading taste. He enjoys long histories of war and relations among countries.  He also reads about his favorite classical music artists and has subscribed to 'The Economist' as long as I can remember.

My grandparents, however did not graduate from college and both of them had very large families to take care of. My grandparents, however did like to read and my father's mother often recommends books to my mom. My mother's mother recently died, however she gave me a new insight on literacy. When she was a young child her parents only spoke Slovenian at home and she had never learned English. She went with her cousin to Kindergarten  knowing very little English and her cousin translated for her.  Because of this, she had to repeat Kindergarten. However, she learned English very quickly after that year and now does not remember very much Slovenian. Before she died she read many religious books about the Pope and the Saints and encouraged us to stay close to Jesus by reading the Bible. My mother's father who also passed away, also liked to read. I always remember their apartment filled with many books that they both read. Even when it became hard for them to see, they read the books with a magnifying glass.

The Computer Revolution Comes to Our Home My family got our first computer when I was in sixth grade. It was a family computer and I still  remember the first computer software we used. The computer came with a CD with Celine Dion and Gloria Estefan and it showed their music videos. I thought it was the coolest thing. We also bought a game called Zoombinies. It was a children's game that I played for hours on the computer. After the initial novelty however, I stopped using it as often and typically only used it for the Encyclopedia we had bought for it. The next year we got America Online and I made my first screen name.  My parents used the dial-up service for the computer and because of this we could only go online for forty-five minutes at a time. I did not go online then for very long and I began to check my mail maybe twice a month.  All through high school I only used the internet for research for projects and papers. My friends all yelled at me to check my mail, but I just would rather use the phone.  We got Microsoft Word when I was a freshman in High School and I learned how to use PowerPoint in my Computer Applications course.  It was not until this summer that I began to talk to people online and check my e-mail regularly. I did this because I wanted to keep in touch with my high school friends and I liked to talk to them regularly.  My mom wrote her first e-mail ever to me when I was in Barcelona for two weeks. She still does not trust computers and would rather make a phone call.  My dad uses computers at work and he often fixes the problems at home on our computer. He does not talk online very often at home because he does that at work all day. My sisters use the Internet more than I ever did but they still do not go on as often as most children. Primarily because our service is so slow and we can't  be on very long.  Despite this, the computer revolution is slowly catching on in my home and we will probably come into the modern day age as soon as its obsolete. HOME NEXT PREVIOUS