A goal I made at the beginning of this year was to try to read more. I remember when I was very young, my parents would not allow me to go on the Internet, so the only means of entertainment I had was TV (Netflix was not a thing back then). Like most other kids, I watched TV excessively, until a point where there was nothing left any channel could offer me (and I didn’t really want to watch the news). I then was forced to find another way to entertain myself, and so I started reading. Before that, the only book genre I read was comics. But since I read basically all of the comics that were offered at the bookstore, (can you see a pattern of excessive consumption here?) I started reaching for fictional books. I was a little intimidated by actual books at first because of the amount of words and pages there are, but I didn’t have any choice left. When I tell you I fell in love with reading, I really did. I bought my first book (which was Lolita — a very interesting choice, I know) and then I bought two more and then ten more and then twenty more. I would stay up all night and finish one book a day.
When I began high school, I stopped reading because studying and schoolwork took up most of my time. At the same time, I was forced by my teachers to read materials that I was not actually interested in, leading me to fall out of love with reading and spend more time on social media instead. About a year ago, I had a realization of how toxic social media was for my mental health. I was suffering from PTSD, depression, insomnia, and severe anxiety, and social media did not help with these illnesses at all. If anything, it only made them worse. So once again, I was forced to stay away from my phone, but this time it was voluntary.
When I decided to begin reading again, I chose a book from the books I had bought years ago but never read. The book was The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson. I bought it at the airport in Singapore because I thought the title was very funny, but I never even opened it. To this day I’m glad that that was the one I picked out. I’m going to be honest with you, I spent one month reading the first 10 pages. Every time I picked up the book and tried to read, I just had a sudden craving for using my phone or checking my texts. That was when I realized how much control my phone had over me. I finished the book after 2 months. This book was a very easy read so the fact that it took me 2 months to finish it was pretty insane.
But you know what, this was when I started seeing the results of not being on my phone so often. I noticed how much happier and hopeful I had become; I was learning new things and that book introduced me to another side of myself that I didn’t know existed. I fell in love with reading again and for the first time I felt free from all the mental diseases I had before. I also felt free from my phone and uninterested in social media because I was so focused on whatever book I was reading at the moment. I felt like I was learning so much about things I was never taught at school. I felt like a whole new person.
Fast forward to now, it’s almost December and I’ve just realized how reading absolutely changed my life for the better. I read everyday now and it’s what I look forward to as a treat. I feel so much wiser and more mentally stable (which is the most surprising part because I have always struggled mentally). I was going to write a book review for this article and what I’ve written so far was supposed to only be the back story, but here I am. I guess this article is my way of encouraging people to read more, especially if you’re someone like me who is prone to mental illness. Reading changed my life, and maybe it could change yours too.