I remember: the comforting weight of my grandmother’s arm around me, the soothing sound of her voice, the bright pictures on the page, and the joy. A lot of details about this moment may have changed as I’ve grown up, but one thing about reading that has always stayed with me is the joy that it brings me. 

Even before I learned to read on my own, I would beg my parents and relatives to read to me all the time. I was ready for a new story at any time of the day and any genre. I devoured books one after another, so quickly that our frequent trips to the library could barely keep up. As I got older, I started to learn more about reading, like how the author’s purpose and experience influenced their writing. Around this time, a lot of my classmates lost their love for reading, but I feel that learning about rhetorical choices and strategies only strengthened my love, and showed me a whole new way to read. This love of reading is something that my family does not necessarily share with me; my parents like to joke that they are not really sure where I came from, and my brothers view reading as the same kind of burden many of my classmates do, no matter how hard I try to make it appealing to them. Despite this, I have been able to connect with others through my love for reading, so I not only can enjoy it on my own, but also share it with those around me. 

I find that the idea of escaping to a new world is just as appealing to my teenage self as it was to seven-year-old Alyza; I am still able to use reading as a way to relax and put myself into a good mood all these years later. I hope that I will continue to be able to utilize stories as a way to escape, but ironically to also bring myself back to the present moment. When I feel overwhelmed and need to disconnect from the world to refocus, immersing myself in another setting often provides me with the focus that I require. I also am able to use stories to give myself perspective on struggles that I don’t have to deal with. Being from Naperville and growing up in the environment present here, there are a lot of privileges that I take for granted, like frequent vacations, new clothes, and a strong education, but reading helped me to realize that not everyone lives the way I do. This helped me to grow and learn to appreciate the things that I was given. 

The details I remember from my first reading experience may have changed: my grandmother is no longer here to sit beside me, and the bright pictures have all but disappeared from my favorite stories, but I know that the one thing I can count on is that reading, learning new information and exploring new worlds, will always bring me joy.