Someone who loves books,

Someone who loves writing,

Horses and horse back riding.

A female with dirty blond hair and blue gray eyes,

Five foot two and still growing,

Light skin and unpainted fingernails.

Lost in my own world,

Not into social media,

Crazy normal,

Because normal people aren't,

History,

Science,

Reading,

Math isn't my style,

Lound country music in my dads truck I'll take,

Windows down and laughter,

A puppy at my side.

This is me.

I came from a womb or

the stillness after a long fight

confused with peace

or lust

or love

and when I was born

it was surprising as though nine months

is not enough time to fall in and

out of affection and in again

And as for place I have sixteen

each with their own chapbook

my aunt used to say

though

that I was born in a flower

and I like that best of all

so if anyone asks my name is Thumbelina, but I won't marry a mole,

nor almost die for a prince

Once, in the old days, the gift of reading was available only to those lucky ones. Today, most of us can read and can learn how to read. Unfortunately, people don’t want to read. Either they don’t have the time or they simply don’t want to. They would rather watch a movie or play a video game. Once, when I was but a boy, I read books day after day. While most of my friends played video games or watched movies, I wasn’t able to do so. Poverty didn’t allow me. All I had was the fresh air and the books, which I borrowed because I wasn’t able to buy them.

I loved reading books because they would take me away from this harsh world into worlds of fantasy like Middle Earth or worlds beyond our solar system like Coyote. I would read at my tiny home or at the forest and dream of being in them and exploring those incredible worlds crafted by humanity’s greatest gift; imagination. Our imagination is a god-like power. It is this gift that brought us all these wonders of today, all these worlds in which we can enjoy.

It was a beautiful summer’s day when I first read “The adventures of Tom Sawyer.” The book immediately became one of my favorite books. It was there and then that I have decided to become an adventurer and explore the world. That dream lasted for a short time, but while it lasted, it was great. I explored the forests near my town and would imagine there was buried treasure hiding there somewhere. I would hunt for that treasure with my imaginary friends, since I didn’t have real friends, and we would find it in the end, get rich, and live a life beyond our wildest imaginations.

The school’s library wasn’t a popular place. You could find me and a few others reading there sometimes and enjoying this haven. I liked hiding there from those who mocked me because I was poor. Don’t get me wrong, I am still poor, but my mind and soul are rich with words I gathered from all of those books. Those books raised me and changed my view of this world.

And now, as I am older, I still read. Yes, it’s less than before, but a man has to work. Time is something we can’t control. No matter how rich or poor you are, time won’t stop for you. But I can always find the time to swallow a few words.

I like to go to this park below the old town. There is a bench there, a solitary one, where I would sit and read, unaware of the time and the world surrounding me. When I would finish reading, I would observe people. They would walk and they would stare at their precious smartphones, constantly taking pictures of themselves and posting them on social networks.

Once, reading was a gift. Now, a lost treasure.

Through the books that we read, we are able to experince worlds that are forgein to our own experiences. We can how other people live, and learn about the world around us. Beyond that we are able to see the worlds that people dream about. Stories in books matter for they share lessons that can change a person's soul. Showing them that their story deserves to be told, or that they have the strength to fight their own demons. Maybe they might not be a chose one, but they do have the smae strength that will allow them to save themselves.

Most of my reading might be fanasty novels about imaginary worlds, but I am still able to learn what is possible. That life takes courage, there will be battles from losing a job, or a tough break-up, but that does not mean that we have to stop to fight. Our story only ends when we say it does, and if the books have taught me anything I know that I will have to fail dramatically throughout the series of my life, if I want to be victorious by the epilogue. Stories in books taught me that I have to fight to create the life that I want, for I am the chosen one of my own story.

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry has greatly effected my worldview, and remains one of my favorite books. A book about a lost little prince who travels the unverse, tought me about relationships and the affect that we could have on each other's lives. Through the interacts with the Fox, it is revealed that if you want to "tame" someone, or have any kind of relationship with them, you have to put in the effort. In life I know that I can't just wlak up to someone and say that they are my best friend, that could work in the moment, but I need to work to maintain that relationship. Through a book that is geared at children, I was able to learn about the purpose of relationship. So often people wonder the purpose of life, but that thought process is always at a single life. Humans are not meant to be alone, and we should be asking what our purpose together is. I realized that lesson through The Little Prince. The purpose of our combined lives, is to be there for each other, No one should travel through the life alone.

When I was younger I often found it difficult to find my voice, difficult to get people to hear me or even see me. So I would dive headfirst into books or video games, anything to take me to a different place. While I know this isn't the best way of doing things, I found something within those pages. I found myself, the person I never truly knew. The person who loves a good adventure and is always ready to crack a joke to help someone laugh. The person whose only goal in life is to make people smile when the world around them does everything it can to cause a frown. I saw myself, my true self, in the characters I read about. It gave me hope that even someone like me could make a difference. The story that shaped me the most was The Screwtape Letters By C.S. Lewis. In it, a demon named Screwtape sends letters describing how to bother humanity to his nephew Wormwood. The story paints a vivid picture of the little things that get under our skin and multiply into much larger issues. That spilled coffee or tailgater that gets you frustrated to begin the day and snowballs into a full-on argument once you get home. That little look at someone you find attractive turning into an affair. It opened my mind to what we as humans struggle with on a daily basis and taught me to just let the little things go in life. If someone is tailgating you, just keep driving. Nothing I do is going to change their attitude so why worry about it. This world we live in would be a much kinder place if we could all learn to just let things go. The only thing a grudge does is poison your own mind because they've already forgotten how they wronged you. The only reason that pain still exists is that you keep it alive. So I live every day trying to make the people around me happy. It isn't always easy to find that happiness within myself but I always try. I work every day to forgive those who may have wronged me and trust me, it's a daily process to be sure. But in the end, it's worth all the effort. If one person can stop that cycle of anger, it's worth it all.