After finishing one of the books, my sister and I would act out the story, taking on the roles of the characters. As a child, I was not at all picky with my reading choices. I was open to reading any book. As a teenager, I read a lot of historical fiction, which usually included a romance. Looking back on this time, I think that reading on my own was perhaps a form of escaping from the challenges of life. Although I was a good student, I struggled socially in high school. I found it hard to relate to others my age because I was shy and not interested in their conversations. It was easier for me to be alone. Reading at home offered a comforting diversion from some of my negative experiences and emotions. I was able to get caught up in another world where life was more ideal. I experienced life through books without the discomfort I felt in social situations. Sometimes I stayed up reading until the early hours of the …show more content…
I began doing well in elementary school, and have been a good student ever since. I did well at almost every subject except for art and creative writing. I did not enjoy writing stories, because I always had the hardest time coming up with ideas. I felt like my stories were flat and uninteresting. Although I was reading a lot of interesting stories at home, I had trouble producing such interesting ideas myself. In our family, my sister was considered the creative one; my parents would often praise my sister’s creativity. They were always impressed with my sister’s ideas, and when, on occasion, I was the one that came up with a creative idea, they immediately assumed it was my sister’s idea. My parents didn’t criticize me for not being creative, but, since they didn’t tell me I was creative like they did my sister, I gathered that I simply wasn’t creative. Instead, I was good at math and science and reading, so I began to find my identity in my performance at school. I might not have been creative, but I was