In order to learn, you must want to know. Usually when curiosity arises, we ask questions. Think for a second…how are most of your questions answered? Even more, what makes the answers creditable? When I think about life, which I do quite often, millions of questions arise in a moment. I usually cannot contain my thoughts, because I become so overwhelmed at what I do not know. For example, a random thought about the construction of skyscrapers and its foundation arises. I may ask a friend, who would instantly judge me for being weird, or I might Google it. If my friend did answer, I probably would Google it anyway just to test her creditability. I find that though we trust others, we still have a burning desire to know if it really is true. This is why we must read.
Some may argue that they are auditory learners and an audiobook is the book of choice. As blessed and gifted as those people are I must argue that reading is still important. What about the game telephone? No matter how great of a listener one is, information via word of mouth is not reliable. However, if one writes down a secret and passes it along, the note stands for itself.
Being young is fun, I get it. There’s social media, snapchat, instagram, Netflix and more social media. There are Youtube videos and Siri and Alexa to feed us all the information we need. We have sport highlights and makeup tutorials to free us from boredom. Who really has time to read a book? The word book is a bit intimidating. I have not only heard the excuses, but have used them myself. “There are so many words and chapters and sentences,” “we read at school all day,” and “movies are better”.The list goes on and on.
As a famous quote reads, “A book is a gift you can open again and again.”
I would add, anything that is written can be opened again and again. Maybe reading is hard because you have not found the right book. It can also be hard to focus. One of my biggest challenges was simply finishing the book. There are so many obstacles against the investment of reading especially in our tech-savvy society, but I plead with you to read something…anything. It has been the greatest gift to me, and I have become a better student of life because of it. Your brain will wake up and you will become wiser.
Oh, and thanks for reading this article! You’re on your way!