Finally

My reading has transformed into a dedicated hobby. Some of the books I have read this semester have been challenging, difficult to get through, and interesting. Some of the books have made me tap out, submitting me with their dragging sentences, and boringly eloquent words, to the undesirable fate of setting the book down. On the contrary, others have captivated me, motivating me with a magnetic force to keep picking that same book up. I put it down and its like a flame flickers out, the only way to satisfy the cold left in it's wake is to pick up the book, every page turn fuel to the fire. The flame of reading has grown bigger for me. Now when I go to Jefferson Point I find myself wasting away hours, not looking for anything specific, but just reading. I go to the cooking section and look up a random, tasty recipe that I will never make, then I put myself in the middle of a mystery, hopping from that into the middle of a raging battle in the biography of a great war general. The books that I read at the bookstore, I never finish, or even see again. The interest that is there, the fire, is what is most important to me. I still stay to a couple of genres of books, or to a few authors, but that is just when I want to read a book all the way through. I have found myself expanding the reaches of my knowledge through reading this semester, and that is a trend I hope to continue. I have read interesting facts in magazines, skimmed articles about celebrities and drug busts, things that I never thought to read, I have begun to pick up. I want to continue to feed the reading fire. I want to be able to, as I have done this semester, to pick up a book and enjoy it for what it is, not that I have to finish it, or understand it, but to lose myself within the confines of the dark ink of the white pages. Reading has become a way to focus my mind, to give me different views of the world that I can compare and relate to. What was once a laborious task of schoolwork has now become a passion of pleasure that has helped me grow, focus, and expand. Its amazing what can happen in books, and through books. I especially want to thank Mr. Hill for being a hipster, English teacher, and whose revolutionary class has allowed me to glimpse the mysteries of reading for pleasure and fun, thanks again.

Walkers with the Dawn
 By Langston Hughes

Being walkers with the dawn and morning,
Walkers with the sun and morning,
We are not afraid of night,
Nor days of gloom,
Nor darkness--
Being walkers with the sun and morning.