My favorite pastime from my childhood are the hours that I could spend in the public library, rummaging through its wide selection of books. I’d stare at the words and pictures. I could imagine them as movies. While wishing I didn’t have to rely on my mother for reading those lovely stories to me, I’d try to remember them. Hoping the vivid details would stick in my mind, I would share with everyone the stories I knew. I never left out a single, wonderful detail.
Soon I’d be beginning kindergarten. I was ecstatic because I would be learning. More than anything I was thrilled to learn to read.
My first weeks of kindergarten passed and I can decisively remember being disappointed. I didn’t learn very much in the beginning. I knew my numbers, shapes and some letters. My mother would practice reading with me at night. One night I read our favorite children’s bible to her, surprising her greatly!
In about the middle of my kindergarten year I was diagnosed with Leukemia. This interrupted play, school and life in general. Throughout the years I was at home more than my time in the hospital, but didn’t have the strength to do much. The thing I missed most is the trips to the library with my mother.
I would miss an explainable amount of days of school during my chemotherapy. This made those around me think I’d be behind in school. But in kindergarten through fifth grade I was considered a gifted student. I was in a special program and studied above my grade level. To keep me from being bored with school, I read a lot more. Since I would read one book per week my mother noticed I would need my own library card in about the second or third grade.
Reading certain novels can help me get away from my problems. When I have troubles and want to disappear from life I just pick up a big book and I can go anywhere in the real or fanciful world that I wish.
The many branches of the public library is to whom I owe my gratitude. When I was sick I couldn’t go many places but just by picking up a book in my hands, I had the ability to float into a new world.
I have learned many new styles of writing from reading different books from the public library. One day my own book with my name as “Author” will be on every library shelf in the world, adding to the amount of wonder that children in the next generation can experience from the future public libraries.
