Book, Chapter and Verse

When I was very young I thought that reading was magical.  When my mom read to me, I was amazed that ink scribbled on paper could be combined in such a way they could be read with eyes, uttered by mouth, translated into sound, heard by my ears and in my mind’s eye, “paint” a picture and evoke feelings as a story would evolve.  I wanted nothing more than to learn to read and make that magic happen for myself…..and ASAP!  I remember memorizing books, page by page so that I could “read” to my Dad when he came home.

I couldn’t wait to go to school because that’s where I’d learn to read.  One day my Mom drove to an elementary school to find out when they started but when came back a few minutes later, she told me that I couldn’t go to that school for a whole year because my birthday is in the middle of December (I thought, “What did my birthday have to do with anything?”).  I was heartbroken.  So she enrolled me in the neighborhood kindergarten instead.  I was so happy to be going to school with the prospect of FINALLY learning to read only to find out during the first week of school that the only thing we were going to learn was our ABC’s!  I was FURIOUS!!  I told my teacher on the fourth day, when we were receiving our mini-donut (“D” for donut!) that I already knew my ABC’s (HELLO!?!?!), hoping she’d put me in the place where there was reading being taught!  She just shrugged and said, “Well, that’s great”.

When I finally reached first grade (you know, when a kid is almost 6 years old, waiting a whole YEAR is a huge chunk of lifetime!), I was so desperate to read I learned as fast as I could, and even snuck the reader book home and read ahead (both of which were specifically NOT allowed) and quickly advanced to the top reading group in the class.  One day, our teacher was helping the slower reading group (the “Orange” group), so she told those of us in the “Blue” group to read to ourselves.  Read to ourselves???? What?!  Luckily one of the other kids asked how that was done and my teacher told us it was like reading out loud, but without moving our lips or saying the words out loud.  Wow!!!! I didn’t know that was possible!!!  But I tried it and from that moment on, I was a reading maniac!

When I got older, my love for reading also expanded to my fondness for writing, hence, this blog.  But what I wanted to write about today is writing our own book.  The book I’m talking about is not literal or tangible; the book I’m talking about is a representation of the story of our lives.  I heard someone say that our lives are like a book and every day we get to write a verse or a chapter.  I really like the idea of being an author because as such, I get to write my own story and I have total control.  As the author I get to tell the story I want.  I get to choose to between a good decision and a bad one and even if I happen to make a bad choice, I can always choose to re-write that decision to have a positive outcome and learn from it.  I get to choose the ending to every situation!  I can choose to close a chapter when I believe I’m finished with it and I can even choose to write a whole new book!  I can write all kinds of books from action/adventure, fiction, non-fiction, romance, heck, I can choose to write a whole library of books!  Furthermore, I can choose to lend the “books” to others, hoping they’ll learn from them (or at least be entertained by them!).  I am the author of my life, I get to CHOOSE!

You are the author of your own book.  You get to choose.  You are in control.  Care to share your story?

-Tessa L. Charles