I love to read books, tell stories, and write stories about people with a passion for life; the underdog is my favorite kind of person to write about.
 I was once the underdog because I was unable to read! I was born into a family of 14 children, and I somehow got lost in the crowd at home and school. No one taught me how to read! I carried that secret with me until I was in the 6th grade and 11 & ½ years old.
At the beginning of the school year, my teacher, Mr. Robertson, recognized that I could not read. Ask me how he knew from the beginning, and I will tell you that I have no idea. Maybe he had a keen sense of observation? Or he cared enough to pay close attention to his new students.
 Mr. Robertson would send me to the school's library to read a chapter book. He gave me instructions to come back to him every time I came across a word that I could not pronounce. For me, this meant that I had to go back to him 5-8 times an hour every day. I could not pronounce simple words like you, them, here, time, more, chair, with, find, and other one syllabus words. After the first couple of weeks, I was exhausted from all the running to and from the library. I decided to try to learn how to pronounce the words myself. I applied all that I had learned from him. He taught me how I should form vowel sounds. He said that I needed to understand the sounds of every alphabet, but I did not know the sounds of every letter; Yes, I did because he had taught me many times while I was running to and from the Library! I started applying what I had learned, and in an extraordinarily little time, I learned how to read. By November, I was reading the lower-level books. By January of that school year, I was reading on grade level and I was devouring books.
I found books unique and wonderful; the stories they told were fascinating. I wanted to scream to the world, "I Love Books, and I Can Read!" Because of Mr. Robertson, I was no longer a statistic but a success story. I became a Teacher.