I was about five years old when my mother gave me my first book, "The Hobbit." Though the words were way too big for me to pronounce at the time, my mother would read it to me at night to help calm my fears. The tales of dwarves and elves, greedy red dragons, and a ring that would rule them all had caught my imagination. This was to be the first of many books that would eventually save my life.

It’s weird to admit that that reading saved my life. That these books, filled with the life of all these adventurers, plugged up my sinking ship and dragged me to the shore. See, my childhood was a broken and unhappy story. There were no princes or death-defying feats, dragons and their slayers; no, just me, my mother, and my father. Being home, in itself, was like the Battle of Five Armies, split amongst my mother and my father, sometimes even my grandparents would step in as reinforcements. The only solace I ever found was within the pages of a good book.

Reading gave my thousands of lives in my short time here on Earth. I was a soldier in Vietnam, I was a princess locked away in the highest tower, I was a dame of the roaring twenties, a socialite of the 1900's, and a champion of the 74^th Hunger Games. I’ve seen Mordor, Hogwarts, cities of gold, and the Iron Throne in Westeros. I’ve become an adventurer without leaving the small confines of my room and I loved it. Diving into a good book gave me something that my childhood couldn’t. The ability to enjoy something; to savor each word on the page as if it were a delicious feast.

Books gave me a small hope that there was some good about the cruel world I’ve seen. In the pages, there were happy endings and from I had seen as a child, I hadn’t known what a happy ending was until I opened up a book. I was given an escape to a different world and I didn’t want to go back to reality.

I’m 19 years old now (soon to be 20), and I’ve read more books than I have shelves in a house. Literally, I’ve filled up about seven cabinets full of books, then about 20 more boxes. This doesn’t even count for all the books I’ve rented from the school libraries. And yet, I still remember each of these books, no matter how long it has been since I’ve read them.

It’s just like my favorite character, Will Herondale said, “We live and breathe words. It was books that kept me from taking my own life after I thought I could never love anyone, never be loved again. It was books that made me feel that perhaps I was not completely alone.” This will hold true for me until my end of days because when in the night, I thought I was forgotten and alone, books were there, giving me more life in a few short hours than I’d ever see in our world.