Reading to Dream

I used to love to read all the time when I was younger, so much that I have about 100 books sitting in my room collecting dust. I know that they take up so much of the little space I have in my room but you’ll never see me move them, mostly because every day I tell myself that I will start to read again. But as you get older you get busier and sucked into technology. Instead of picking up one of my beloved books, I turn to my smartphone, because well, it’s a distraction. I don’t like that it causes me to waste hours of my life just watching a tiny screen rest less, but for some reason it just happens every day. I’m tired of that feeling where my eyes are burning from never blinking, but not because it hurts, but because it’s not due to reading an amazing book. Social media has sucked me into a black hole where I feel the need to connect to it every day, and it’s taken my time away from grabbing a good read. So for this year, as part of my new year resolutions, I decided to leave my phone alone, unless I absolutely need it, and instead indulge in all my books. The feeling you get when you read before bed is one I miss. I loved falling asleep and losing my place only to wake up and search through the pages to find wherever I left off. I loved feeling as if I was the director of every book, playing each story as a movie in my head, and imagining myself present, experiencing each and every scene. I loved looking up from reading to see that time had passed by so quickly, hours later, happy because I wasn’t lost in a media feed, but in literature. I loved going to sleep at night after reading because I knew that whatever I had read before, would morph my dreams and create wonders. And I miss that feeling so much. So I really can’t wait to read again, and I hope that other people can realize what reading can do to someone. Xochil