Being able to participate as a Literacy Leadership Team member was one of my desires since we are defining literacy and inspiring more readers to sweat for books. Our initial step was reading children’s books and analyzing how they could shape our perspectives. However, the most important thing was to acknowledge that children’s books were not only for children. We, teenagers and adults, could absorb the knowledge within a higher level of analyzing the
characters and the theme. For example, Mr. Happy which is a book that persuades people to always smile and be happy. Therefore, as a reader, I would smile even in bad circumstances. Nonetheless, we also read the Rent Collector book which was the core of the Leadership Team with a goal of empowering literature. This book’s level is higher than the children’s books. This book empowered a student, who hates books, to enjoy reading for fun. Furthermore, students got inspired to write poems about this book: found poetry, photograph poem, and metaphor and simile platforms. My poem was influenced by the photograph technique which was written from a boy’s point of view as a rubbish picker at Stung Meanchey, Cambodia. Then, my friends and I voluntarily shared and performed the poems in front of everyone from the school. I was anxious that I couldn’t speak with a microphone and memorize my poem without the paper. Yet, I did it confidently. As matter of fact, I’m really pleased to be a member of this team. Since we discovered that literacy is everywhere. Personally, I felt that I have enhanced my understanding of illustrating poems. I used to be scared of writing or even reading the poem. Now, I am ready to write poems during my free time.