Reading: “why is learning hard” and “motivation and learning”
Prompt: How did my personal experiences give me the motivation to learn new thing?
When I was in high school, reading book was a tedious job. Whenever I sat down to read book, I don’t have the motivation. However, my perspective on reading literacy has changed after I participated in a church event.
During a frigid winter morning, I reluctantly opened the history book. Shortly after opening the book, I was bored to devote more time to reading. I started scratching my head and stretching my arms, not motivated to read history book. While I was distracted, Lanying. one of my friend’s mother, asked me if I wanted to go to church with her. Her voice was sandpaper raspy indicating that she was sick. I contemplated to myself that I could distract myself from reading so I talked to my father asking if we could go to the church with Lanying. He nodded the head and agreed that we should give Lanying a ride.
When we arrived at the church, we stepped up the icy steps, walking into the church and sitting down on the benches. A silence fell over the congregation and a somber pastor stood at the pulpit. I imagined some sort of passionate raving would begin, drawing everything I knew about sermons from the movies. Instead, a something in-between a lecture and a conversation began. I didn’t listen to the words, convinced that it was all boring and entertained myself by checking out the people and their reactions. Who were these people, why were they here and what did they find in the words of the pastor? When the sermon ended, I got some answers to my questions as we joined the congregation for lunch.
In the warm dining hall,. we were the new faces and people went out of their ways to greet us, ensuring we got platefuls of aromatic food. I was amazed how friendly and relaxed to talk to most people. We sat next to an old couple, and the conversation quickly turned to American history. I wasn’t familiar with it, but it was intriguing that they compared events from it to Asian history, which made me motivated to listen more from them. They shared their extensive knowledge and listened to our opinions. The more we discussed, the more I discovered that history is valuable to our lives. Our conversation ended when it was the time for the church to close. Reluctantly we got up to go. My father and I loved meeting this old couple so we wrote down their phone numbers. “We should invite them some time soon,” I said excitedly.
I was glad to meet this old couple that it reminded me of my grandparents. I was glad I had the motivation to learn history and appreciate the value of history. I was glad to accept and embrace new opinions from other people. I returned home, straight to my reading. It was fascinating. It was ironic that by stepping away from reading, I came back to them with motivation and eagerness that I couldn’t have imagined.