Reading has always been a part of me just like my brown eyes, hatred for bugs, and especially my fear of butterflies. Over the span of the last few years reading has become one of my favorite hobbies. During Covid many of my hobbies such as Softball and hanging out with my cousins had then become dangerous and risky. Towards the beginning of Covid my cousin Ruby reached out to me explaining a book that she had read and loved so much.

 Living in a family full of avid readers I was intrigued and knew it was best if I started trying. Just being so interested in the name itself, The Hunger Games, I had to check it out. While reading the book emotions bubbled up just as I feel when talking about an opinion at school. I feel towards characters in a way I never thought was possible. As I read through the book my emotions became so real, I was crying with Katniss when Rue died, and I was infuriated at Gale for killing Primrose and staying with District 13 and the revolution. My anger towards Snow morphed into indignation at Coin and noticing things many people did not notice such as the real fact that Snow was not the antagonist in the story. The same thing happened when I was watching Stranger Things, I became closely connected to Billy Hargrove, I saw the good in him no one else I know seems to see. 

With that saying reading became an addiction during Covid after the Hunger Games series, I next read Divergent by Veronica Roth and felt so strongly about the characters that I cried for hours after hearing the heart wrenching ending Veronica Roth gave with Tobias and Beatrice. After Divergent I went onto Percy Jackson and after reading the first book I was so connected to just the story itself I ended up crying because the book was over and at the time the second book had not been presented to me yet. As I slowly fought my way through the pandemic reading became my source of comfort and one of the only time consuming things I had to do for hours on end. 

Authors were never an important aspect of writing to me. For a while I had fallen in love with Shannon Messenger and her series, Let the Sky Fall. I even read her Keeper of the Lost Cities series but never enjoyed the main character. I found her selfish and I strongly did not agree with the relationship between Sophie and Keefe. Keefe never deserved a selfish girl like Sophie. Though I did enjoy the concept and fanart of Tam and Keefe. I even started to like contemporary and realistic fiction such as Kasie West.

School also dramatically changed. For a while beforehand I was a decent student and was never really bothered. But when I made it into high school at Lakota Plains Jr in West Chester Ohio my English Language Arts teacher, Betsy Bernard would yell at me in class for writing too much. Some students would ask me to give them answers to homework questions, I was also known as weird to many kids at my school due to my love for reading and the random facts I presented to the class, though I never mines being weird since I think at weird better than ordinary it was a little hard making friends with interests like me. Some people even just wanted to be my partner because I apparently was thought of as smart and could do pretty much all of it. 

My emotions also dramatically changed as I grew more and more into reading. Like I said before my emotions grew larger, more complex, and abrupt. 

My mental health also changed and became easier to tame. When I was in first grade I was diagnosed with a mental health disorder, meaning parts of my brain called the Prefrontal Cortex, Basal Ganglia, and the Thalamus, would take over me in some way creating lots of anxiety and obsessiveness. We like to call this diagnosis Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, also known as OCD. With this I was unable to concentrate very well and had many problems with basically living my life the way everyone else was. Reading became a way to help me calm myself and distract myself from my anxiety. Reading was a way for me to forget what I was worried about or just not have that worry affect me anymore. 

My writing has also improved drastically. Before I started reading my stores were bland and full of confusion. As I grew into reading my writing was not as unorganized and illegible but instead became organized, faster to brainstorm ideas, and to help with plot and character development. Through reading my ideas started to come to life on page with swift transitions and interesting flawed characters that created more life and context to my writing.

When I started reading it first became an addiction. But now reading is able to help me in so many ways, from school work and writing to helping with my mental dilemmas. The life I live now started with a pandemic, a book, and my imagination. 

I thank the Hunger Games and Suzanne Collins for starting my journey out into who I am now and who I want to be as I grow older. 

Never give up or be afraid to try something new, that may become a life changing moment for the better.