Being back in person on campus, my free time is far from open. I spend the majority of my days walking to class, completing my assignments, attending club meetings and hoping I have a little ounce of time to myself at the end of the day. When we finally went home for winter break, accompanied with having zero responsibilities, I realized that I needed to prioritize my time doing the things I enjoy doing the most, specifically reading.
As a middle school student, who existed before the social media craze, all I would do was read with my friends. We had a whole book club that was our lifeline to worlds outside our own. It was not only the best part of my childhood, but looking back it makes me even more grateful to have been right on the cusp of the Instagram and Snapchat obsession.
Once I entered high school and academics started to become important, I put reading to the side, only picking up a book if it was required for a class or an assignment. It wasn’t until I began reading in the summer months for pleasure that I remembered how amazing reading a good book can be. Nothing beats the feeling of truly being invested in a story and not being able to put it down.
When I arrived on campus freshman year, reading was far from my top priority. Understandably, I was working on acclimating to a new life in school, trying to make friends, learning the in’s and out’s of this new chapter of my life. Unfortunately, that set me back into my high school habits of ignoring something I truly loved to do. Though, as the second semester began and we eventually were being sent home because of the pandemic, it gave me a second chance to rekindle my relationship with literature.
Though I would like to say that ever since then I have been an avid reader all months of the year, in reality it never clicked until the second semester of last spring. Having to readjust my social life and having a copious amount of free time on my hands, I took up the old reliable habit of reading. It ended up being one of the best decisions I could have made as I concluded my sophomore year because I remembered how much love I had for reading. It reminded me of how influential it could be on various aspects of my life and it re-ingrained the defining feature of my adolescence.
Since then, I have been making the conscious effort to read a book or two a month. It was really ramped up when I realized the excess amount of time I spent strolling aimlessly through my phone and concluding that I was simply scrolling just to scroll. At that point, it was failing to even entertain me and it became something I would do to pass the time. As a result of this understanding of my new-found bad habits, I decided to replace this unhealthy relationship I had with my phone and dedicate that time to something I actually enjoyed doing that could stimulate my brain in a new way.
Whether you are a new reader or a seasoned bookworm like myself, it is never too late to jump in. Reading, though it can be mundane at times, can open up new worlds that you can escape to during your hectic everyday life. Try and prioritize reading a little bit each day and I promise it will not only spark a new interest, but it will remind you of the days where all you wanted to do is sit and talk about the new books you read. Don’t let the craziness of the world around you prevent you from taking time to yourself once and while. Life it too short to waste it scrolling.