Journeys

This excerpt is from the Minnesota Literacy Council's annual reading by adult learners held on May 12, 2011 in collaboration with the Loft Literary Center. The event featured the stories of adult literacy students enrolled in English as a Second Language, GED, reading and other classes. Several of the readers were authors featured in the book Journeys: An Anthology of Adult Student Writings. Some are immigrants or refugees writing in their second or third language, while others shared their writing for the first time after years of frustration and anxiety attributed to low literacy skills. For more information or to order a copy of the book, visit mnliteracy.org.

Muzamil Yahya is a learner from the Minneapolis Adult Education program. This excerpt is taken from the Minnesota Literacy Council's annual reading by adult learners held on May 30, 2012 in collaboration with the Loft Literary Center. The event featured the stories of adult literacy students enrolled in English as a Second Language, GED, reading and other classes. Several of the readers were authors featured in the book Journeys: An Anthology of Adult Student Writings. Some are immigrants or refugees writing in their second or third language, while others shared their writing for the first time after years of frustration and anxiety attributed to low literacy skills. For more information or to order a copy of the book, visit mnliteracy.org.

I'm from Somalia in East Africa; I grew up in North Somalia. I was born able to hear, and throughout most of my life I could hear. When I was 14 years old I began to have hearing loss and I don't know what caused it. I have an auditory neuropathy kind of hearing loss.

I was born in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. When I was a child I liked to run and play with my neighbors' kids and I loved to draw. I was good in school.