Growing up, I always had my nose in a book and my mind off in some imaginary land that consisted of strong, independent, female characters that always managed to find their perfect matches while they partook on never-ending adventures. I would be off in the middle of a world in which I dreamed of actually existing in, I would waste my wishes on stars and 11:11's, hoping to just get a taste of what make-believe felt like, because as a reader: we are all too knowledgeable as to what reality is like.

Growing up a reader, I always heard things like: "those stories aren't real," or "why are you crying or upset, it's just a book." as if that revelation wasn't clear to me before hand. As if my tears weren't in regards to that fact that these stories will never come to life, as if I wasn't crying because of that fact alone.

I grew up being able to see the eye rolls over the top of my books and hear the whispers that rang louder than the turning of my book pages, and yet the stories never changed: they never decided to become something different or chose to love someone else. They were never "just books," they never felt as if they had to be something other than what they were created to be. They were content and I was at peace with this, but the world doesn't always see it that way.

You see, the readers, they tend to be the dreamers, the believers, the doers, the people that always tend to end up upset at the end of the day because they expect the best of a person: you see, they were taught that all characters grow, that they all change and develop as people, as creatures, as human beings. Readers are taught that a lot can happen in just 20 pages, and yet we tend to waste 20 minutes a day wasting away to nothing with the hopes that maybe, just maybe, we will amount to something, but we put in no effort to get there.

Growing up, I had a book by my side more than I had my own back. I trusted in the words that I had read, to defend me from the world that I lived in, and at times they failed me, but I never failed myself. I gave myself the greatest gift of all. I gave myself freedom, I grew up with no restraints, the four walls around me served as nothing more than more book shelf space. My mind was an open war zone and I stood in the center of the field with a book as my shield and I feared nothing. Reading showed me that words can hurt you but that they can also save you, they can fix you, they can change you.

Growing up a reader, I learned that life is full of "plot twists" and "antagonists." I learned that at times you will have felt as though you should already be on your way to a conclusion but that instead, you have yet to reach the climax of your life story. So be patient like a reader, take your time, live your life word by word, and know that when you come to the end of your story: you will have lived a thousand lives.