I remember being placed in the highest reading group in grade school. My reading level was above many of my peers. In third grade, I remember reading the largest chapter book I had in only a few days just because I wanted to. In fourth grade, my reading group was given books for sixth graders while everyone was reading smaller books. In sixth grade, we had to log reading 25 books. I read over 75.

Through middle school and freshman year of high school, reading was my escape. I didn’t have a large group of friends, I was always the odd one out, so I found friends in the fictional characters I read about. It was my getaway. Instead of sitting alone at a lunch table or not talking to anyone in a classroom, I would be playing Quidditch with Harry Potter or fighting bad guys with Rose Hathaway. As long as I was in the world of books, I was okay. I was safe from the world and from the odd looks I received. As long as I had a book with me, I was okay being alone.

As high school continued, my friend group got bigger and I got more involved. My friend group changed a few times, but I always had people. I got busy with extra curricular activities and had a job from the time I turned 16. I would still read in class or if I had some free time, but it wasn’t the same. A book that used to take me a day or two to read now took me a week or more. Any real free time I had went to sleeping.

Now I’m in college and I have even less time. I have classes and meetings and work and my free time has disappeared. I miss the days where I could just sit and read for hours, uninterrupted. I miss being able to escape from this world and find myself somewhere new and safe where all the issues weren’t happening to me but to a fictional character. I miss the escape, but I don’t have time for escapes.

I used to be a bookworm, but now I’m just a girl who reads when I can, and I guess that will have to do until life slows down. But whenever that happens, I know all those characters are there waiting for me in those pages to take me away to their worlds.