Even at a very young age, I was always fascinated by fantastical, fictitious worlds where fairies flew around me and dragons breathed fire atop mountains as they kept princesses hostage.

Like many young girls, I dreamed of growing up and becoming a princess. Also, like many young children in general, my imagination grew wild with not much to tame it. That was, until I discovered the world of reading.

Suddenly, this portal was opened and other worlds were portrayed before my eyes. Worlds with stuff even my imagination hadn't deemed possible, but on those pages became a sort of reality as the images flickered to life in my mind.

As the years passed, the small bookcase I've had across from my bed filled with books, first with the "Junie B. Jones" stories and the "Magic Tree House" series. It grew and changed, "The Spiderwick Chronicles" replacing Junie and "The Clique" series replacingthe historical adventures in a time traveling tree house, as I figured out what I liked and I didn't like. After that, "Twilight" soon took its place with "The Last Dragon Chronicles" which Is when I discovered the genre I'd stick with: fantasy. Now, I even stick to the genre as I read "A Song of Ice and Fire" among other things but, my love has also grown into other genres.

My point: Growing up reading as much as I did made me into the person I now am and created an escape for me. Growing up, I changed from being an extroverted social butterfly, always chatting with new people, to more introverted as I kept more to myself. Reading helped me feel less awkward with the transition, something I've always been grateful for.

It's also something I wish other people saw. I've always carried books around with me, and somehow throughout the years I became thought of as smart because rather than talking to classmates in my free time, usually I'd sink low in my seat and open the book I carried with me, to pick up where I left off last.

People may have thought I was anti-social, but I was just doing what I enjoyed. It did get a bit awkward, though, when people would turn to me and say "you're smart, what does this mean?" That was usually when I'd laugh at the idea of being called smart, but happy to keep up the facade. I'd try my best to help the person out.

As a reader, I figured out who I was and grew to learn my identity quicker than most my classmates, it seemed. Especially as my reading level grew higher than those around me and school books we were required to read went from being hard to a walk in the park. As a sixth grader walking into class with "Angels and Demons" — my favorite book, I'd discover my favorite even though it outside of my preferred genre of fantasy — it was hard to explain to people I was reading a book depicting murder when I was 11 years old, but my mother saw me as responsible enough to be able to handle the topic. You can only imagine my teacher's face when she read the back of the book one day after I turned it backside up.

Loving and reading so much throughout the ages helped me understand more stuff. As I watched the news, the horrible things I'd see made more sense and I felt my innocence to the world go away as the time passed faster than I wished it had now. I would have loved to have not understood the cruel things I heard every morning — whether it be through the paper-thin wall my bedroom shares with the living room or just by sitting on the couch. But if I never read as much as I did, I would never have formed into the person I am now. Through reading I discovered a world of writing also where you could create your own world in the palm of your hand, literally, and control it how you may.

I don't think I'll ever understand why some people don't like reading. My whole life changed just by picking up a book. Changed into something greater than I thought possible and if given the chance, I'd never go back and change my choice. I'm happy as the reader and writer I am and how it shaped me into the person I am now. With my love of reading I became an introverted, curious writer with a soft spot for helping others as my mind still keeps its child like qualities of imagining dragons and fairies around me, among other things.

Just a word of advice: when your children seem to be having trouble in the changes of life, buy them a book, or read them one. It may help shape them, like it did me.