When I was kid my mom would read to my siblings and me every night, I remember being taken away by the fact that the words seemed to fly off the page and create this world inside of my head. My mother would read us "The Secret Garden," the book was old and well loved, the pages were yellow and the cover was fading but it always had given me this feeling of contentment, of home.

As I began to learn how to read, I would read street signs, posters, or anything of that nature. I didn't read books myself but my teachers would read to us, I remember putting my head down and closing my eyes while they read and creating all these exciting worlds in my head.

When I entered middle school my love for words had intensified but new problems had started to arise, the problem being an anxiety disorder. Life got really hard in sixth and seventh grade, my anxiety was controlling my every move and thought. Then one rainy spring day in my eighth grade year our class read a book, and I fell in love. I discovered that reading helped me deal with the anxiety because if I had a book in my hands the panic was gone.

Books had woven their way into my soul, the words, the characters, the pages; it had all just became an intricate part of who I was. Books became my own little lifeboats that would keep me out of the ocean of anxiety. I always felt very comfortable when I was reading, there was no judgment, there was no dread or frustration, and most importantly there was no panic.

I can't finish this article without saying something about a book that is always there for—it's a book I go running to every time I'm confused or scared or nervous. The book is titled "Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe." The book has all these beautiful quotes that I have read time and time again, this book is pretty much my Bible. There's a quote in there that states "words were different when they lived inside you." I found out that this quote meant a lot to me because I have a lot of things going on with me, but I could never put a name to them. Once I discovered their name, and I found out it said something about me, it became a so much more real part of me.

Books will always be apart of me, I mean they pretty much got to where I am today. I honestly don't know how I would of have survived if I had not discovered books. Even though that though freaks me out, luckily I will never have to find out. I know I have some great people in my life who are always there for me, but I also know that my books will always be there for me as well.