When I was younger, I hated reading. I dreaded when it was time to read in class. I thought that it was the worst part of the day. I use to prefer math and science over reading and writing any day. But now it’s different.

I mean, I am even an English major. But when I was younger, I hated reading. I would even cringe thinking of reading a paragraph aloud. It could have to do with the fact that I was a terrible speller and I never thought I was pronouncing the words correctly. But as I got older, I had to read more, I didn’t have a choice. I had to read at school and for school and my parents were always pushing me to read outside of school.

My older sister was big on reading, and so we would go to the book store and browse for hours, and I would always be bored out of my mind. My dad would tell me to pick out a book to read and I did because I would read the back cover and see if it was something slightly interesting. It usually wasn’t or it didn’t interest me at the time.

Eventually we would leave the store and my dad and sister would read their books and I would sit there flipping through the pages but not really reading the words on the page and if I did actually read I didn’t fully understand what was going on. I never finished a book.

When I was in fifth grade I had a teacher who would make us sit in a circle and read to us and we would read to her. She would want us to discuss the book and ask us what we thought. One day she told us that we would start reading a book called "Loser" by Jerry Spinelli. It was the first book that I found interesting enough to read on my own. I would read it when I was home and in class. It was the first book that I enjoyed and read until the end. It was the book that made want to read other books.

That book was just the start, when I was in sixth grade I kept reading more books. But it wasn’t until eighth grade where I read so much that I would never put books down. I would read for hours and stay up late reading.

Something that I use to hate became my favorite thing to do. As I got to high school I kept reading more but I would also write my own stories and chose what would happen with them.

Reading books and writing my own stories mean so much to me because it changed me as a kid. It let me read about other people and read about their lives. And sometimes books and stories let me escape my own life and let me imagine that I was someone else. Even though that sounds a little crazy.

Now here I had 19-years-old and a creative writing major in college. Reading affected my life so much that it made me what study literature and writing in college. It’s important to read and write in life.

You can read anything about anything. Whether it's romance, science fiction, drama or a biography. You learn so much just by picking up a book and reading. Sure you aren’t going to enjoy everything you read, but you aren’t going to enjoy everything you watch, either.

Reading is important because it lets you learn and imagine. Plus, reading is everywhere: you read a street sign, a Facebook status, a magazine and, of course, books. Reading a book is something that I use to hate, but now it’s something I enjoy and that I’ll do for fun.