Sitting down in your comfiest chair, with a warm drink of your choice, is one of the best ways to spend a day inside. Now, add to that opening up that book that you have so anxiously been awaiting the time to read it. Or, the book that is so worn with use that you wonder when it might fall apart. Those are the days that make me the happiest.
Books are like a whole new universe that you can dive into whenever you need to. I know that they have always been there for me. There were days that I don't think I could've made it without the book that stayed latched to my side. I went through "Harry Potter," "Hunger Games," "Percy Jackson and the Olympians," anything. I gave every book my undivided attention.
Back in those middle school days (the dark ages of my life) I don't think I went a single day without reading a book. I became quite good at ignoring anything going on around me. I gave my full focus to whatever I had in my hands. I wish I could say that there was no reason for the way that I zoned into my reading, but sadly I can't.
In all reality, reading is what helped me keep it together when I had no friends around. The characters in the book I was reading were the ones I cold relate to. Their problems were mine, meaning I didn't have to focus on the problems I was facing in the real world. Reading made everything more bearable. Looking back I received so much grief from the others around me for the amount that I read. But, I was always there to help them with an Accelerated Reader test.
Reading gave me something to be proud of. Gave me goals to reach, and gave me new worlds to discover. I remember a time when "Breaking Dawn" was released (yes, I read the Twilight" series, and I am only slightly ashamed of how much I enjoyed it) I got asked by our school librarian to read it. She asked me to decide whether I thought it was appropriate or not for those my age and below to read. I was so excited that she had asked me to do that. I never forget how happy I felt in that moment.
Since then, books have remained my happy place. They are there for me to get lost in whenever I need to. Granted, I don't have the same problems I did then. Those characters that I read about back in middle school will always be the friends that helped me survive those years.
I don't know where I would be at if I hadn't discovered reading. Conquering bigger and harder books was always something I strived to do in high school. I wanted my classmates to ask how many pages there were and watch their faces fill with shock after I finished it in a week (they were usually Stephen King, and not really that hard but they didn't need to know that).
I wish that I could still make time to read every day, and keep a book permanently by my side. Although, I'm glad that I now have friends who exist beyond the page. Reading saved me from myself. I don't I think I would be who I am without it and I thank it for that.
