First off, I want to start this by saying that I have not always been an avid reader. I actually had a really tough time learning how to read all throughout elementary school. I wasn’t dyslexic and I didn’t have a learning disability, I just couldn’t understand words. It all started in kindergarten when I moved to Freehold and started at a new school mid-year. Whenever we did independent work that had anything to do with reading, Morgan, the girl that sat next to me, would have to read and explain everything to me. Then, every night I would go home and play word-ring games with my mom and dad. When I was in first grade I still remember getting pulled out of class every day to go to “jumpstart” in the hope that I would eventually be able to decipher a few sentences or get an A on a spelling test. The first time I remember actually wanting to read something on my own was in fifth grade. My mom was volunteering at my school’s book fair that year and she decided to bring me home a series about Tinkerbell and the Pixie Hollow fairies because she thought I would enjoy them. And I did. For the first time ever I was addicted to a story clinging to every page and every last word.

Since then reading has been a bit of an escape for me. When I want to go somewhere all I have to do is open a book and let the words take me on a plane to Europe, or the mansions on Long Island, or even back in time. I can become anyone I want to be and experience things I will never experience in the real world. I can be a socialite in Manhattan worrying solely about my manicured nails, or a lunar princess trying to save the entire universe. I can go to high school and ride the bus every day with my best friend while sharing our favorite comics and cassette tapes in the 80s, or solve the murder mystery of a young and complicated heiress in 2005. Books allow you to do far beyond what you could ever do in your own life. Like George R.R. Martin said “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies… The man who never reads lives only one.”

Books also make us smarter and who doesn’t love to feel smart? It is a proven fact that readers have a higher GPA’s, higher intelligence levels, and more general knowledge than non-readers. If you ever have to choose between the book or the movie, always choose the book. Movies have a tendency to leave out details and sometimes even major storylines. Plus, you get to enjoy books for much longer than two hours. The best feeling in the entire world is finishing a book that you’ve invested so much time into, especially when the ending, or even the book as a whole, makes you feel every emotion so intensely all at the same time. My number one favorite book, "The Book Thief," did this to me. It’s about a young girl living in Nazi Germany with her foster parents trying to navigate friendships, adolescence, Jewish imprisonment and slaughter, and a love of reading in a time and place where books were burned and restricted. I love this book so much because for one, I can relate to the protagonist’s infatuation with the written word, and also because of the emotional chaos it put me through. I’m not gonna lie, I cried A LOT from the first page all the way to the last page, but it's all because of how well written and developed the entire novel is. Although it’s about sad events and many of the characters do meet unfortunate fates, if someone else’s thoughts and words can make you feel so deeply and intimately, how can you resist?

Maybe it’s just me and a handful of people who love to lay in my bed at three a.m. sobbing about fictional people, who we feel like we know personally, but I feel like more people would love it just as much if they gave it a chance. Don’t denounce reading entirely just because you think it’s boring or a waste of time because all that means is that you haven’t found the right book yet. I found mine when I was ten, but you may not find yours until you’re 16, 30, or even 75. Once you find the right book, you will fall in love with reading just as much as I have and finally understand why books make me so happy. Because even though it’s amazing to open up a book and completely lose yourself between the pages, becoming someone else entirely, it’s also nice to close the book, look around, and remember who you are. Remember that you’re not those characters, you’re not dying, you’re not traveling through space or time, and that your life is pretty ordinary. You’re healthy, you have a loving family and wonderful friends, and you’re happy because although reality can get kind of boring sometimes, this is your life. And the best thing you can do is use those characters and their stories to inspire you to be the best possible version of yourself that there is and hope that maybe someday you’ll do something that you feel is even more amazing than anything they’ve ever done.