Hailey Erickson- An Average Introduction

I’ll start off with my name, that’s a solid introduction; my name is Hailey Erickson. As most other students in this course, I am liberal studies major. As much as that major defines me so does my minor in Special Education, I am able to declare this semester. I have been involved in the special education community for most of my life, and am eager to have my own classroom someday. I am a working student which also defines me, as I transferred from Butte College after one too many years and began at Chico State last fall. I work as a caregiver for 2 incredible young adults with intellectual and physical disabilities, and have for over 2 years. I am the youngest sibling of 3 and enjoy having my family local for now, including my boyfriend of 2 years moving to Chico this last semester. I am passionate about what I do and am looking forward to another challenging semester of seeing what I have to offer.

When we recently read Bronwyn T. Williams “A Puzzle to the Rest of Us” it brought a familiar sense to me of questioning what qualifies as reading, what makes a reader. I read an article last semester that mentioned that we as a generation have been told we are the least likely to read, stats are decreasing. It must be questioned what is being qualified as reading, scholarly articles, novels or medical advances? Before these articles, I would define a reader as a book person, nose to paper, walking while reading. Now I can boldly define that I believe every one of us are readers, readers of signs, journals, books and mostly online post. We are all reading more than ever before, challenging the idea that we read less. We may not be only reading hundreds of novels but we read early morning, late nights and everywhere in between. At a ripe eligible reading age, we all become readers.