Ever since I learned how to read, which was early for me, I fell in love with reading. I started reading children's chapter books when I was four. I loved books; I still do, but I don't read nearly as much as I used to, as I want to or as much as I should. The smell of any books, old and new, when you flick through the pages under your nose would fill me with joy and such euphoria.
I was in love with the beauty of reading; how it felt to hold a book, how I would read every free moment I had because I would drag an extra book with me everywhere, I would read while waiting in line for class, between classes, when waiting to be picked up, on the bus to and from school, while I waited to be picked up.
I loved books so much that when I first became intrigued with the "Harry Potter" series, I would get in trouble for staying up reading. I would have a flashlight and read under my covers with my trusty Scotty dog right next to me. When I would get my flashlight taken away, I would crack my door because my younger sister slept with the hallway light on, just to soak up all the words I could manage before not being able to read the words due to exhaustion.
Books were my best friends.
Books were the only stable part of my life besides my family. Being a military brat could begin to make life hard, with never staying in one place for long, and friends bouncing in and out of your life, only the super loyal friends always by your side. Packing up and moving every so often began to take a toll out on me although change never phased me. I didn't act out; I made friends easily; I adjusted well. But I don't think I would have been able to without the help of my best friends; books.
They were the only constant comfort in my life.
After I got to junior year of high school, my love for reading began to deteriorate. I would read books here and there, mostly because I lived in Germany and the only cool place, because we didn't have air conditioning in our apartments, was to go to on base was the bookstore. Not a very big selection, but I still had the library.
But as people do, I grew out of the book nerd phase. I got into my theatre phase which is now my life as a Theatre Education major.
I began to read less and less.
I got too busy to bother with staying up super late my nose deep within a book. I would have sudden urges to try and get myself back into reading, and it would happen for a month or so, but then got put on the back-burner again.
The older I get, the more it devastates me that I let myself get sucked into the world of Netflix and let my love of reading fizzle out. The older I get, the more my urges to read flair up, especially now that my favorite series of all times, "Harry Potter," is getting its prequel series as movies.
It's easy to fall out of love with something that a lot of people find trivial. Especially as we all age and find other things more important; jobs, college, relationships. But I think it is important to hang on to these hobbies and try to find time for them or to make time for them.
I think our hobbies and interests shaped who we are when we are younger and they deserve much more than us to simply fall out of love with them.
If you've fallen out of love with something that made you insanely happy when you were younger, I urge you to go back to it and try to fall back in love with it as I am doing with reading. It's made me so much happier to re-read the "Harry Potter" series, and to look forward to visiting one of my many homes more often - the library.
