By Kelsea Schafer, written Fall 2023
I have traveled to hundreds of continents, countries, and places without ever leaving my room. Diving into a book was transportation into a different world, a key to a locked door, as I spent my time in the trees with The Magic Tree House duo, going on adventures with The Baby-Sitters Club, to solving mysteries with Pip and Ravi, sailing alongside Huck, to stopping the burning of books with Guy Montag in Fahrenheit 451. Reading has been my companion, go-to, and shadow following me since the beginning, helping me learn and understand components of life, and has been with me ever since my mother handed me the first book of the Junie B. Jones series.
When I was younger, I was encouraged to read as many pages as I could in thirty minutes. It was not a race, but simply a challenge, and I was ecstatic at the opportunity to read what felt like a limitless number of pages. I was determined to absorb the details and information, in hopes of giving a perfect play-by-play of what occurred in the book, following the conclusion of the timer.
Because of those memories, I find myself transported into a scene when I read, living, and acting alongside the main character, which has inspired my infatuation with writing. An author’s ability to simply use twenty-six letters and transform them into complex plotlines, stories, and novels, has left me awestruck every single time I pick up a book. Further, the ability to create visual scenes in reader’s minds with just twenty-six letters is not limited to just novels but is open to many writing facets, inspiring me to pursue chances to write. Those chances have been transformed into actual opportunities, as literacy has inspired me to create a school newspaper, at my high school. I have banded together a team of like-minded students who are influenced by literacy and are motivated to write effective journalism for our school. Ever since I picked up a book, I knew the pages were endless with possibilities of chances to pursue anything I wanted to, including journalism.
When my first instinct is to head to the chapter books with over five hundred pages, I know that I have progressed from the eighty-page Junie B. Jones novels. I do not ever remember a time when I was not surrounded by a book, my life is filled with novels, aching to be read, re-read, and mulled over. The endless supply of chapter books sits comfortably placed everywhere in my home: on the bookshelf, table, in my backpack, bed, and nightstand. The cracked spines of the elaborate novels sit re-read, loved, and cared for, and as the time I look back on my literacy journey, I recognize that the novels I read today, sit next to the first “real” chapter book, Charlotte’s Web. Literacy has always been my supporter and my utmost friend, pushing me forward and challenging me to learn more.