The first narrative I listened to was Eric Seger’s story narrating his journey to becoming a sports journalist. I enjoyed how he included his back story with his family. He talked about getting up early to read the sports column before his dad took it to work. His mother always encouraged reading and my mom was the same way, always encouraging me to read whether it was for school or for fun. I enjoyed hearing from his mom because my mom was a big influence in my personal interest in literature and writing.
The second narrative I listened to was Ashleigh Markowitz’s narrative called “Loss of Literacy” in which she talks about her experience working in healthcare as a nurse aide. The beginning of the audio narrative starts with an interview with a patient with dementia. She talks about dealing with the confusion of the patients and learning how to communicate with them in such a confused state. She explained that instead of answering their questions with blunt honesty, she began to adapt to their situations and make them feel comfortable by assuring them that they were going home or their wives were coming. She was able to understand literacy in a different way because of the circumstances of the patients she was working with. At the end of the essay, she says she learned about how knowing a patient is more than just reading their chart and understanding that, it is about seeing them as a whole person. Both of these narratives were helpful for me to listen to because it helped me clarify how much backstory I should include. Specifically Eric Seger’s narrative was helpful in that way because I saw how his backstory helped to create a clear outline of his narrative and the intention behind the essay.