Introduction

My name is Matthew Lemons, and I am returning to NJCU this semester after taking a hiatus at the end of 2017. I am a career firefighter and majoring in Fire Science here at NJCU. I am currently in my junior year. I started college at Kean University after high school but stopped when I was hired to be a firefighter in 2015. I transferred to NJCU for the Fire Science program specifically to help me advance my career. Immediately following the fall 2017 semester I obtained my commercial drivers license, got engaged, and purchased a house. Since then my wife and I have renovated our home, gotten married, and we are eagerly waiting for our son to be born this coming summer. In my free time I enjoy working on and rebuilding trucks and spending time with my wife and our dogs. My current project is swapping a 1995 Powerstroke diesel engine into my 1978 Ford Bronco. Our three dogs are named Shamrock, Savannah, and Pierce. Shamrock (Shammy) is a Glen of Imaal Terrier. Shes pictured below with my wife Jaclyn. Savannah (Savy) and Pierce are both rescue Rottweilers. They are both originally from Georgia but we rescued them individually about a year and a half apart, so they are not related. Their picture is down below, Savy is on the left, Pierce is on the right.

I cannot recall an exact moment in time in which I considered myself literate, but I can intimately recall my father reading a book named Verdi to me before bed. I would beg him time and time again to repeat one specific page/passage, in which the main character (a growing python) falls from a tree after launching himself from a vine into the air. The specific passage made me laugh out loud without fail. I remember the desire to read the passage myself so that I could still laugh and enjoy the moment even when my father was not home. Although, I could never amuse myself quite like the way my father could. Looking back now, it was my father that made the moment special not just the words and the story.

             

  As I grew up, reading never became something I loved or had much affection for. I viewed it as an important skill to have because communication is one of the most important parts of our society. Because of this, I had a hard time understanding why other children, and other people in general, spoke about how much they enjoyed reading. I always preferred to be outside exploring and or riding my bike instead of being inside reading a book. I chose to use my imagination in the woods or at the park instead of reading about someone else’s adventures.

              Literacy to me hasn’t changed much as I have grown older in my life. I still think of it, and use it, as a tool. Literacy is a passage for competent communication and education to flow from one source to another. Without a literate society, there is no way that we would have been able to build the society that we now enjoy.