I walked into the library--heads dipped into dense texts. I found a coveted spot and followed suit, opening a heavy (expensive) textbook to the assigned reading and took a deep breath as I dove headfirst into the thick muck. It took about seven minutes to trudge through one page--and that unfavorable speed didn't even guarantee that I understood what I had just suffered through. I turned the page, the feather-light paper feeling as though it weighed a hundred pounds. I gasped for more air as I realized that I was only done with about 2 percent of the reading--and after a desperate reach for fresh air, my nose returned to the tiny font, my mind physically hurting from the immense amount of information I was drowning in.
Having started college a month ago, the most severe and obvious transition from high school to college was the extensive amount of reading expected of me. And although it seems like an ironic solution, I have recently discovered that the best way to clear my mind is to do more reading--for no other reason than my personal enjoyment.
I came to this epiphany when I received a mysterious package. I tore open the padded envelope and my excitement transformed into indifference... A book. I love to read--I am a writing major so it would make sense for me to be excited about a book. But at first, it seemed like reading a novel would be a chore on top of all of the other reading I already had to check off my to-do list. Then, just as quickly as my excitement had plummeted, it perked back up again, and the glossy bronze cover of "Someone" tempted me to peer inside the fictitious realm.
So, just as I had hours before in the library with my Macro textbook, I inhaled in preparation and dove into the words scrawled across the page. This time, instead of drowning, I was floating--drifting across pages seamlessly, aimlessly gliding down a Lazy River. The liquid embedded in Alice McDermott's descriptive voice was refreshing--it was cool water slipping down my throat, reviving my ambition and sufficiently ebbing my stress.
It seems paradoxical--reading as a break from reading. But the ability a book--that you're reading for pure enjoyment--has to transport you to another world, is very necessary in college. Maybe you can get this from Netflix, but for me, reading is a way to completely forget about the piling work (reading) accumulating in my planner--at least temporarily. When binge-watching a TV show, the pressure and guilt to do work lingers in the back of my mind. When I read a book, the thought evaporates--and just for a moment I feel as though I have nothing to do as all of my attention averts to the little girl that jubilantly plays across the pages of my book.