Yes, you've probably heard it a thousand times from numerous people - "You should really be reading more" or "I haven't seen you pick up a book in ages!" or "Really, what was the last book you just read for fun?"

In elementary school and middle school, I LOVED to read. Like seriously it was more common for my parents to come home from work and find me reading a book than watching television. I would fly through books in days. But as I entered high school things, as always as you get older, got more hectic.

Practices were running later, homework was more difficult, and more time was needed to study for exams. Then there was studying for the SAT/ACT and visiting colleges and writing applications. On top of that, jobs, whether it was tutoring, training or hostessing. Something was just always going on. And in any free time, you had it was spent hanging out with friends or really just relaxing or sleeping because your days had become infinitely longer.

This was high school life. I think I read the same number of books in high school as I could read in a month in middle school. And honestly, it wasn’t until I picked up a book again that I realized how much I missed reading and how much of an impact it could have on your life.

Now, this is not to say I’m reading dozens and dozens of books now that I’m in college. College life is also an extremely busy part of a person’s life in a different matter than high school. In fact, I really on do much reading for pleasure during school breaks seeing as for many of my classes I have had reading assignments of up to 80 pages to do in one night on top of other work. But as I pick up these “fun reads” during breaks instead of watching countless mindless hours of Netflix (which I am also guilty of but that’s for another time), I realize the importance of reading.

For one thing, I’m typically in a better mood after reading for a few hours than I am after watching TV, searching the web for a few hours. Also, I feel like it sparks more ideas for me to think about. And really after a few hours of reading the book tends to just draw me in and I can sit there for days until I’m done.

Now, this next one seems obvious but the more I read I typically see my grades are better. This past semester I was able to read a mere 5 books, hey that was 5 more books than I read last semester, and this past semester my GPA sky rocketed (I don’t really know if there is correlation but ya never know!). Not going to lie it was difficult to resist the urge of watching the Netflix shows all my friends were talking about, but then again, I forgot my password so it wasn’t that hard.

In the long run reading has so many benefits, and you should really try to read a bit every day. If that means actually doing your textbook readings, great! If it means reading extra books, even better! I can guarantee it will allow you to have more knowledgeable and intelligent discussions, and you may even enjoy it. Your vocabulary will be expanding before your eyes, and it may even help you reduce stress and find peace throughout your busy day. So, nice work, you made it to the end of this article! Now go read something else!