Why Reading Is so Important to me
The last time I read a book from cover to back whole heartedly was probably in 8th grade. It wasn’t for an English class, a summer reading challenge or one of those school incentives where when you read a whole book you get a coupon for a personalized pizza. It was for pure pleasure.
When I was younger I loved to go to the library and read. I would read anything from pictures books (if you count looking at pictures as reading) to Ben Carson autobiographies. I didn’t know it then but going to the library and reading for hours there was an escape from my home life. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t have a terrible home life. I am extremely grateful for my family. I love my Mother, Father and brothers very much and am very thankful to have them in my life. They are not the reason I had to run away to the library.
At home I didn’t have that opportunity to understand the outside world. What I mean by that is at home, my only exposure to the outside world was limited to my friends in the neighborhood and the Indian T.V channels we had (My dad cut American cable once we were in middle school).
I didn’t know how college would be, I just knew I would have to go eventually. I didn’t know what a doctor did, other than ‘treat patients’. I didn’t know the backstory behind famous artists and how they got to their levels of fame. I didn’t even know what I didn’t know. The library solved that problem for me.
The library gave me an endless supply of anything I was interested in at the time. In middle school I wanted to be a doctor. I read all of Ben Carson’s autobiographies religiously for a whole 2 weeks and then moved on to reading Surgery manuals. I would stumble into concepts or ideas that sparked something in me and go digging for more information and would eventually end up researching something I didn’t even know existed prior to reading whatever sparked my interest.
The library gave me confidence, ignited my interests and kept me thinking, growing and moving into the future with an arsenal of information and wisdom.
For a while I stopped reading for pleasure because of the pressures of high school, test prep, extracurriculars and college. But as soon as I had a still moment to reconnect to my authentic self, the first thing I did was read a book.
It was the most lovely feeling. It felt like I came home to a fresh set of clothes, warm blanket and a made bed.
Now that I know how fulfilled reading makes me feel and how essential it is to my growth, I vow to never veer too far from it.
