As a college student who takes sixteen to eighteen units per semester and who has a part time job, I completely understand that there is never time to do anything for yourself-- no time to sleep, no time to eat, let alone enough time for leisure activities. On top of that, most college courses require an extensive amount of reading, which is not only time consuming, but exhausting. Due to all this, it’s entirely acceptable for the last thing on your mind during the semester to be personal reading. As a bookworm myself, I know that even us novel-lovers are normally way too strung-out to pick up a good book at the end of a long day and read into the wee hours of the morning, knowing we have to get up early again to start the next day. I get it. I understand. In fact, this was my thought process, too, up until about a week and a half ago when I began to reread "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" for the first time since fourth grade. I, too, was under the impression that I had absolutely no time for my own reading when I had over two hundred pages to read in one night for my classes the next day. That was until a few days ago when I was strolling around my local Barnes and Noble, and I picked up at least a dozen enticing novels that I knew I would just have to read.

This article is a call to all book lovers who have “grown up," to those of you out there who always say that you’re dying to pick up a book and just go to town, but that you simply don’t have the spare time or energy. This is a call to all of you who have been unknowingly lying to yourself about how much time you actually have. Trust me, I’m a girl who knows how valuable a bit of “free” time to just sit there and relax is. I know how much you value that extra fifteen to twenty minutes of sleep each morning or night. But I also know how valuable a second to reflect on things you wouldn’t normally think about is. I am of the opinion that personal reading and research is vital to your growth as a person and your own acquisition of knowledge.

Though I am speaking through the eyes of a busy, young college student, this same piece of advice, this “ah-ha!” moment that I recently had, is applicable to all of you who are working adults-- to those who may not have classes and schoolwork to worry about, but who have a job and a home and possibly an entire family to care for. This call to action is for anyone who once loved reading, who once enjoyed nothing more than to slink down into your bed or a favorite chair and disappear into another world for a while. It’s also for those who feel you just don’t have the space in your life for any new information, the ol’ “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” argument. To all of you, guess what: You have time.

I know all the moments in your day are filled up with class after class, client after client, dish after dish, children screaming, professors droning, etc. You've probably heard the whole, “you have to take time to do at least one thing for yourself every day,” spiel a million times. However, have you heard that by not introducing yourself to new information on a relatively regular basis, you’re constantly losing brain cells, losing opinions, losing memories, and losing sensitivity to stimuli? Were you aware that by skipping the novel and heading straight for the promising warmth of your comforter, you’re actually aging yourself and becoming less able to reason?

I would argue probably not. If you’re a student, I am well aware that you have constant stimulation, that you’re always reading and challenging yourself, and you probably feel that you absolutely don’t need any other types of intellectual interactions. Well, I could say, what about your creativity? What about your awareness of perspectives and cultures? What about personal revelations that are unlikely to occur when reading for studying purposes? You could easily fire back with, “I read the news every day,” or, “I keep up on current events and am always watching documentaries on Netflix.” What is my response to that, you may ask? If for no other reason, do it for you. Do it for the love of reading you used to have. Do it for no other reason than to be transported out of your own world and your own thoughts into that of a better world.

This article is not only a call for book lovers, but a challenge to all of you who chose to continue reading. It’s a challenge to pick up a book, to take those extra fifteen minutes that you normally sleep in or that short time in between classes or clients and delve into another world, whether that be a world of fantasy or a world discovered in the shoes of those you’ve never met. Little did you know, this article was your first step.