Dr. Seuss once said, "You can find magic wherever you look. Sit back and relax, all you need is a book." These are the wise words which I aim to live my summer vacation by. I want a summer of being an intellectual, gaining knowledge, and seeking adventure through the pages of a book.
In elementary school, I remember dreading "Summer Reading Lists" with required reading books. Usually, there was a test on the first couple days of school which tested your ability to recollect the book's plot. However, I found these tests a bore because I wanted to read books not to remember their stories, but I wanted to learn from them,
These "Summer Reading Lists" and their "Summer Reading Tests" continued until I arrived at college, At that point, anything that you read during your own free time was for your own benefit; you could read as many books as you thought were necessary.
For most of my classmates, this meant that they would stop reading for pleasure by the time it was no longer required of them. Yet, after a full year of reading books for analysis and enjoying these different novels, I decided that I wanted to be proactive during my summer.
This past week, I began MY Summer Reading List. Scrolling through shelves and shelves of books, I searched the library for books that sparked my interest--topics such as law, history, political science, religion, and philosophy. What I did not check out of the library, I quickly made a note in my phone to re-visit these shelves when I was finished with my other books.
I want a summer where my hand instinctually reaches for a novel, not a phone. I want to come back to school in the Fall with a greater knowledge of topics that interest me, reading books that I might not have the free time to read throughout the school year.
Let this be a summer of good books and good memories.