Literacy History

    My name is Harsh Zaveri, and I am a Computer Science major. I come from a country where in the metropolitan cities, people are highly literate and sophisticated, and in other small cities/towns/villages, people are not so literate but they are well-mannered. Living in a metro city in India, maintaining literacy and manners takes a lot of work. I come from a family which is kind of unique to this stereotype. My mother was from a very small city in Gujarat and has a bachelor's degree, whereas my father was from Mumbai and he only perceived high school education. Such was the family that I grew up in, the family behind my upbringing which has never been questioned. I was always encouraged to pay attention to my studies by both of them. I was a very mischievous student and got into trouble mostly every week, but, I was also good at my studies. I know it sounds like an impossible combination in a kid who isn’t even ten, but that’s just what my trademark was. I was the favorite student of most of the teachers in the school. I have always been able to balance things. Everything was good till we migrated to The U.S. Not negatively saying this, but I penned that statement here because if a person gets into a bad network of people in this country, one can manage to get out of it barely. When I joined high school, I got within such a network. Network of people who are lazy and pass easily without any effort. It wasn't long till the thought of 'passing is okay, no need to get straight A's' got into my head. On top of that, I was studying in a new system of education with a lack of knowledge which led to my GPA being less than 3 when I graduated high school. It was tough on me and my family but now, looking at my GPA they’re happy. I followed the path of my role model, my mom, and gave all my attention to my studies in college and now I can feel the difference in myself. Along with this kind of self-improvement, I also awakened the skill that was gifted to me by God, which is poetry/lyricism. I started rapping and representing Desi Hip-Hop culture out here with two of my friends. It has been over two years now that I’ve been trying to represent where I come from and the numbers may not be that big, but music helps me vent out and it’s fun to me. Along with literacy, I think it is very important to have a hobby where literacy can help you present yourself better to the world and your hobby can help you present your feelings that need to be/should be out there. I think that being literate also broadens your mindset and makes you open-minded to many things. It gets you towards maturity and thinking that you are not just a kid, you are an important part of society and to be an asset or a liability is totally up to your own perception of this world.