Anyone else quarantining in your childhood bedroom? Same here. After all those months away at college, it feels weird to be back home full-time. But there are some major perks!
Growing up, I was a huge reader. I plowed through series after series, sometimes spending whole days lost in the pages of Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, The Hunger Games, and so many others. Now that I’m home, I feel like these books are just staring at me from their shelves. So, the other day, I started going through them all, picking some of the ones I wanted to re-read. After all, when else will I have so much free time?
When you’re a young reader, you don’t realize the connections you form with characters. You read the book, talk about it with friends, and move on. But the thing is, especially with series, I spent so much time with the people in those books. It sounds corny, but in the same way that I love catching up with childhood friends, I love re-reading childhood books.
Don’t judge, but I read about ten of the old The Babysitters Club books I found in my closet over the past week. They belonged to my mom when she was in middle school, so these books have seen some wear and tear. But nothing makes me feel as calm and secure as cracking open these books and re-introducing myself to the characters I knew so long ago.
On another note, I realized I’d forgotten how much I love reading before bed. Through middle school and early high school, I would read for an hour or so before bed each night. I had the time; younger me didn’t have much homework to do or friends to text.
Now, I worry that I sometimes spend more waking hours plugged into technology than not. Especially now with online classes, I feel like my whole day is behind a screen. Reading is a fantastic break from it all. It lets my eyes recharge and relax. And it’s also just plain relaxing. There’s this feeling you get when you’re reading, as if the world is smiling down on you because you’re doing a good thing for yourself.
Oftentimes, when I’m journaling or looking back at my life so far, I like to think about what my younger self would think of me now. Would I make younger me proud? I sure hope so. As we grow up, it’s easy to let new hobbies replace old ones. It’s easy to forget the things we used to love. Quarantine sucks, no doubt about it, but I’m happy I finally have the time to re-read the books that contributed to who I am today.
