If having a blog has done anything for me thus far, it has made me think: about myself, others, my thoughts, passions, beliefs, and how they all intertwine in how it relates to the world. If you couldn’t tell already, one of my greatest passions in life is reading, and it is a part of my life that brings me great joy. However, not all people feel as strongly as I do about reading, and it got me thinking: what is it about reading that makes me love it so much? What ensnares me time and time again, word after word, to the point where it’s like a drug I just can’t quit?
This answer was hard not as much to realize, but to accept and admit. The fact is, I lose myself over and over in stories about other people and places, immersing drowning myself in their mystical, enchanting worlds, because mine is just the opposite. I live an excruciatingly plain life; my grades are good but not perfect, I’m intelligent but by no means a genius; I’m an average dancer, not terrible but not fantastic either; I’m aspiring to be a veterinarian but don’t even know if I have what it takes to get there; I’m pretty enough but not gorgeous of the drop-dead variety; I’m not fat, but I’m sure not skinny either. I’m so in the middle on so many scales that at times it’s infuriating.
I know how I must sound, like some whiny, ungrateful twenty something that hasn’t even lived half her life yet. But God, what I wouldn’t give to be a bad-ass heroine, going on some grand adventure, wielding my sword against the evils of the world, and maybe even finding some romance on the way. I’m not delusional, I know that the worlds and people I read about are purely fictional. But every time I crack open a book and the adventure in contains it strikes some chord in me, buried deep down in the pit of my mediocrity, begging to be strummed in the open air. I know I’ll never fight orcs or save the world from demons or dark wizards, but I bear the questions: What have I amounted to during my time in my own world? Who have I touched by simply being me? What will I amount to, what will be my legacy?
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate my life in the least. I have an amazing family and friends that keep my life interesting, and I wouldn’t trade them for any new world or crazy adventure. But sometimes, I just need a break from the monotony, a flare in my plain life, and a hope for an adventure-filled future in the real world, and that is why I read.
The Girl With the Words 