For the Love of Reading

Reading is the fundamental of learning. Without it, all basic human function is lost. Reading provides communication, information, and many a solution. How many times have you had to read instructions in order to put something together? Yes, we've all been there.

Many a parent reads to their children in utero. Nowadays, children seem to be reading at a much earlier age. Thus kick starting their thought processing and reasoning. Reading is something that a lot of people take for granted without blinking an eye. When was the last time you allowed yourself to be engulfed in a great novel, one that you possibly just couldn't put down? Sometimes we just can't find the time or we simply push it aside.

My love of reading started at a very young age. My first six years of my life were spent speaking only Spanish. I had no clue that I would have to learn a whole other language. I was a happy child when my grandfather would read to me the Spanish comic books. I soon learned to read them myself. Then my worst nightmare came true---school! Imagine my horror when I went to school and not one person spoke the same language I did. My mother enrolled me in a school that was not in our Hispanic community and closer to her place of work. The school was mostly made up of Asian and Caucasian children. I believe I didn't say a word for the first six months. I was only one of two Hispanics in my class but I was the only one who did not know any English at all.

I picked up the English language pretty fast and understood every word but my learning to read was very difficult. Children use to tease me on the playground for the way I sounded and tell me that I sounded like a robot when I was selected to read aloud in class. Luckily for me, I had a wonderful second grade teacher who took the time and kept me afterschool to teach me to read. She was very patient and kind and has no idea just how much she impacted my life. Because of her I developed a great love of reading.

There was a whole new world introduced to me. A world of dragons, knights, a sword in a stone, and one of a pig and a wise talking spider. So many wonderful stories that I just wanted to read them all. The library was my best friend. I always had my nose in a book and I still do. I was transported into a world of pirates and treasure chests; of survival in the great Alaskan territory. I learned about a mouse and his motorcycle. As time went on, I met some great people. Hemingway, Steinbeck, London, Doyle, and many great others.

Reading took me to places I had never imagined. I grew up in a very violent urban city and reading was my only escape. Reading was so detrimental in my learning process. I learned how to communicate, how to solve problems, how to reason, and even decipher right from wrong. I read everything from newspapers to magazines to informational pamphlets in doctor's offices. I was proud that I could read and communicate in a whole different language.

Reading is something that a lot of people take for granted. We are conditioned to do so automatically that we don't stop and think of what would happen if we didn't know how to read. Imagine for a second that you couldn't read. All you would see would be a bombardment of letters all around you with no sense of how to put them together or how those letters would sound. You wouldn't be able to speak because no one ever showed you the sounds that each letter makes or how to put them together.

Reading is important. It is important that we teach our children to read and make it fun so that they carry the love of reading for the rest of their lives. They don't have to be bookworms but at least show them to appreciate the value of reading. Remember that some of us are a little slower than others but nonetheless equally as deserving to share the love of reading with everyone else. Please don't take reading for granted. Pick up a book and read or take your child in your lap tonight and read them a funny story or let them read you a funny story.