I can remember the first book I ever read: There is a Town, by Gail Herman.

More importantly, I remember the feeling I had when I read it for the first time. Apart from being proud, I was excited, because I knew more about the world than I did before I read it. I knew something about a little girl, who wasn’t me, about what she got for her birthday and what her family was like, and how the streets in her town were different than the ones in mine. I have now read a plethora of books, and I can say with confidence that I have learned at least one thing from each of them. Even if I didn’t benefit just by virtue of the information from books, the process of reading has helped me in my academic life since elementary school. After being diagnosed with ADHD, many parts of school were a struggle for me, with the exception of English. For years, reading the only time I never felt distracted or confused. I think succeeding in my favorite subject gave me the confidence to apply myself in others, and allowed me to getting better at using the same concentration I had for reading in more areas. My lifelong love for reading has been the most valuable asset in my English courses at Georgia State, and has also been one of the skills I’ve developed the most. I consider reading to be something beyond the physical act of sitting down and looking at a text. Instead, it’s a foundation that enables me to think critically about the world around me, understand other people, places, and times, and reflect on issues that are overlooked.