To the books that reside on my shelves and in my heart,
Thank you. Thank you for showing me how to be courageous, independent and adventurous. Thank you for allowing me to live a different life when my own was too much to bear. Thank you for teaching me about hardships and how to conquer them. Thank you for showing me that loneliness can be overcome with a book in my hands. Thank you for helping me develop into the person I want to be. And most of all, thank you for being my constant companion and mentor.
I have grown up with you by my side. I have spent countless hours pouring over your pages, even when I knew I had far more important things to get to. I have read whole books in a day’s time, and I have taken weeks to finish a chapter. But the best thing about you is that no matter how long of a break I have taken, you are always there when I come back. In a hectic life, it is nice to know that there are things that are never wavering. Your words will remain the same today, tomorrow, and forever.
I love you because you require nothing important of me. You don’t care if I have makeup on or if I have showered in the past three days. You don’t mind when my hair is messy or when my breath could kill a small animal. You have seen me in my worst times, like when I had been dumped and was just looking for some story with a happy ending because I was so sure that the boy who had broken my heart was supposed to be mine. You have seen me in my best times, like when I feel like I could conquer the world because your words have inspired me to live the life I dream of. Through all of the seasons of this crazy life of mine, you are what I have turned to in moments of boredom, in times of true sadness and in eras of joy.
With you, I have lived thousands of lives. I have been a Shadowhunter, a Hogwarts student, a demigod, a Hunger Games tribute, an unwind, an assassin, a hero, a criminal and so many other things other than my plain self, and in some of my hardest moments, that is exactly what I needed. I have experienced tragedy and heartbreak. I have bawled over fictional people, fictional relationships and fictional deaths. You have made me feel emotions that I didn’t know existed, and because of that, you have made me into the person I want to be. The truth is that a reader is a piece of every character they have ever discovered, and that makes me a mishmash of so many protagonists AND antagonists. I am intelligent like Katniss, but I am also stubborn like Tris. I am driven like Jonathan Morgenstern, but I can also be as cold-hearted as He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Each of these characters are an important piece of my own personality, and each book I read allows me to grow a little more.
So thank you to the books on my shelves for being so much more than a pastime, for providing me endless entertainment and for transporting me to worlds where I am whoever I want to be. You are forever a part of me.
