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As a child reading was heavily valued and emphasized in my home. The first book I truly connected with when my mom read to me was The Kissing Hand. I was very attached to my family and got upset when I would get dropped off for preschool. My mom would read me this book at night and give me a kiss on my hand to assure me that, like the story said, she would always be with me.

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By the end of preschool I was so eager to learn and read. I had begun reading books and I was quickly surpassing my classmates' reading levels. My proudest moment of preschool was when I successfully learned how to read

Go Dog, Go! I loved reading to my little brother, because I felt like I was put in the teacher role and could show him the new books I was learning to read. The world of teaching fascinated me and I enjoyed playing school with my siblings. This taught me leadership roles and classroom responsibilities  that I found useful in school later on.

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Kindergarten came and went and I fell in love with reading. By first grade I read book after book and visited the library regularly. I would sit in my room for hours on end reading books. I got a thrill out of finishing books and I loved diving into different stories and scenarios. I was very interested in adventure and mystery, so I read books like A-Z Mysteries and Magic Tree House. I spent all of my free time traveling to different places through books. These books sparked my creativity and influenced me to spend a great deal of my time going on imaginative adventures with my siblings around my neighborhood. The neighborhood children and I would dress up and ride our bikes around town looking for new and exciting places to play and make up stories.

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As I moved through elementary school I was fixated on the idea of Chapter books. The bigger the better. I liked reading long books, because I wanted to be in a story for more than an hour. I fell in love with Roald Dahl books, because I liked the quirkiness about them. I was a goofy, quirky kid growing up, so I connected to books that had characters who were outcasts. The magic in the books I read gave me an escape from reality when I struggled to make connections with peers in my school. These books taught me valuable lessons that I took with me throughout my life. They taught me that it was ok to be different and everyone's uniqueness was valuable.

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I found my absolute favorite story book character in sixth grade. I stumbled upon a book called Candy Floss and could not put it down. The book was very different from anything I had read before and I appreciated how different each of the characters were. Through this book I found many others written by the same author, Jacqueline Wilson. I felt as if the characters in these books had become my friends and I grew extremely attached to them.

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As school started to become more demanding I lost the free time I needed to read. I had so many required reading books for class that I could not find time in the day to read what I wanted to read. This changed, however, when our class was assigned The Hunger Games. I could not put this book down. It was the first book I had read in a long time that I could not put down until I finished it. I read each book in a day and was completely engrossed in the plot line. I felt empowered by the female character and loved the level of suspense and adventure the books brought.

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I became so involved in my school work and extracurricular activities that I lost all time to read. I was so overwhelmed by the books I was required to read for school that I did not want to pick up a second book on the side. Reading had become a chore to me and I no longer enjoyed it. I did, however, begin to enjoy reading the classic novels we were assigned in school. During my junior year I read books like The Scarlet Letter, The Awakening, and The Great Gatsby. My teacher heavily emphasized symbolism in books and helped us break down the meanings behind books we read. The lectures we had about the books we read gave me a deep understanding of reading and a stronger appreciation for books.

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I still have not picked up a book and finished it all the way through. Of course I have had plenty of time to read, however I just have not found the motivation I used to have for reading. I spend a lot of time on social media and I often read articles on Facebook. These articles inform me on current events and news. This is an easy way for my to keep reading in my life without having to sit down and read a novel. If I find a book that I am really interested in I will start it, but I have not finished a whole book in a while. I hope to start reading again soon, because I really do love it. I love how reading can allow you to escape from reality and force you to log off of social media sites. I think that reading is the best thing people can do and it shapes people into who they are. I am inspired by literature, and I hope to find my love for reading again some day soon.

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After junior year I had a teacher that did not hold us accountable to read our books. I stopped reading altogether. I had so many textbooks to read for school that I did not even want to read a novel for my english class. I read one good book senior year and it was he last time I read a book cover to cover. I read Never Let Me Go and it brought me back to the times when I loved to read. This was a required reading book, but it surprised me when I became so engrossed in it that I could not put it down. The plot and the characters reminded me of old dystopian, scifi books I used to read back when I was a quirky kid. This book showed me that I still had that little bit of love for reading.