Rempel 1

Hannah Rempel
Ms. Blandford
UWRT 1103-034
14 September 2015
The Sum of Our Parts
Every ounce of our being is made up of what we have done, what we are going to do, and
what we wish to do. As Thomas Wolfe once said, We are the sum of all the moments of our
lives. Our lives are compiled of and filled with moments both small and big that are catalysts to
our beliefs, thoughts, actions and feelings. I am the sum of what I have done in the past, what I
am doing now and what I plan to do. As human beings we become a cornucopia of all of our
experiences, good or bad. A small part of this larger sum of who we are is determined by our
literacy. And our literacy is made up of small moments in and of itself. Literacy is not solely our
ability to read and write, as the common dictionary definition would observe, but it is also the
ability to see beyond and through. To understand, process and create new forms of thinking. Our
literacy is in some ways like our spirituality, it is moulded by the people we meet, the things that
we learn and the grand occurrences of our life. The way that things are perceived are different for
everyone both in reading and writing as well as religion.
I grew up in a family that loved God. We were never the type to host functions, or bring
food for church picnics, we were the consistent type. The ones that showed up each and every
service, never meaning to disrupt the church, just simply be a part of it. Sunday mornings at 9:00
in the morning, my mother, father and four siblings piled into our stereotypical suburban mini
van, fighting about my skirt riding up or my brothers inability to brush his hair. I always enjoyed
the times I spent in the church. Even at the age of four years old, I knew that it was a place that

Rempel 2
could make me wholebecome a part of me. I enjoyed humming along to the songs that were
played and embracing a culture that I did not quite understand yet. Every week that we would go,
I continued to pride myself in following along with verses in the Bible that my dad guided me to,
slowly tracing them with my pointer finger, as if I knew what word the pastor was on. I would
reach out for the hymn books stowed away in the wooden pews, grasping for something to aid
my boredom and peak my interest. As I grew older, and was reluctantly taken from my parents
side in the grown up service, I was placed in Sunday School. A snot-ridden, juice drinking,
cracker snacking group of young children eager to learn of who this Jesus character was. There
is no saying I was not a part of what these children embodied, but as others were looking to have
the stories of the Bible read to them, I wanted to read them myself. I wanted to hold the book in
my hands and form these stories through understanding words and pictures on a page. My
stubborn nature shone through week by week, and soon I won the battle against the young adults
spending their Sunday morning babysitting wild and hungry children. This time in my life so
greatly affected my literacy because it was a kick off towards my angst to read and learn.
The relationship I had with my mother was a large factor in harbouring my growth as a
literary individual. She pushed for me to read as often and as much as possible, always gifting
novels at random times signing small notes in them to create some sort of significance. I began to
feel that my relationship with my mother was greatly based off of our distinct love for reading
and it stuck, it became important to me and it has lasted all these years. My need to please my
mother at a young age turned into an honest fixation. As young children our desire to be the best
we can for our parents is what drives our decision making. I wanted to please my mother with
my reading but this transformed into my schooling, and so my ambition to do well in school took
off at about the same time I began to thoroughly enjoy books. In school I almost felt superior to

Rempel 3
everyone because of my reading level. It became a way of distinguishing myself from others and
for a young girl, that was probably quite egocentric. I felt that if I was intelligent and smart and
always at the top of my class that I would be the best. So I worked constantly at my writing,
forcing myself to be as good as the authors I read every possible chance I had. My literacy
became better and better because of the drive and motivation I had to be the best.
Bible stories were the first to come into my life and they continued to affect the books
that I chose to read as I grew up. Life of Pi was a book that I read in the third grade. Something
far beyond my capacity of reading, but nonetheless, it was everything I searched for; thick,
small font and of course an interesting cover despite the well known fact that you should not
judging a book by its cover. It challenged the ideas of religion, it spoke of spirituality and a
character that turned to God to find his way through a journey filled with metaphors that I was
far from correctly understanding. It was this book that peaked my interest in expanding my
vocabulary and my ability to understand deeper texts. If I had not initially found this book at our
annual school book fair, I would not have come back to it years later to reread it. Coming back to
a book is funny to me because it rarely happens. Even if I absolutely adore a book for some
reason I cannot find it within me to reread it. Life of Pi was one of few that I came back to, many
times. Due to this book I found that reading was so much more than just words on a page, there
are always underlying messages, questions, stories and so on. My literacy went from the surface
of being able to just read, to actually analyzing and trying to understand why the author had
written something one way as opposed to another.
My literacy was not solely affected by the books I read but also by the shows that I
watched. My biggest passion, aside from soccer as a young girl was nature, and along with that
came Discovery Channel documentaries. I watched the Discovery Channel any time I had the

Rempel 4
chance to watch television because I found it so interesting. I was unaware of the fact that it was
changing my literacy in the way of researching and seeking out answers. Scientists on the show
were constantly looking to find out something, learn new things or disband a theory that was not
necessarily true. Watching this day in and day out changed the way I approached new ideas and
researching. I wanted to emulate the maturity and intelligence of a National Geographic scientist
so I looked for answers in everything. Instead of finding I deeper meaning, I became fixated on
sleuthing or finding answers, so my love for Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys mysteries
skyrocketed.
As I look back on the connection I made to God, and in turn my literacy, I see now how it
shaped the way that I see literature. It caused me to delve further into reading texts and seeing
underlying messages. Reading the word of God questioned my beliefs, questioned the decisions I
made every day and created an atmosphere of wholeness, and realness in my life. Reading novels
made me see that there is a grey area, that there is a place where not all things have exact
answers and that is okay. Fictional authors do not set out to create a book that leaves you ever
knowing and I learned that early on. Watching documentaries about nature made me see that
there is also black and white, definite answers, yes and nos. All of these combined formed the
literate person that I am.
In contrast to Thomas Wolfe, John Green says, We are greater than the sum of our
parts. My literacy is not only the love I have for reading, my mother or documentaries but it is
also my love for God, my connection to things deeper and more meaningful than myself. As we
search to find and dissect these parts that create us, we forget everything grander and larger
than ourselves. My literacy will always be a compilation of all things that have in some way
affected it. It will always be affected by something I read, a new word I learn or a foreign place

Rempel 5
that I visit. As I continue to grow as a person, and become more educated and literate in broader
topics through university, the parts that form who I am will also expand as does my literacy.