Escaping Through Words

In fourth grade, I began to discover my genre. Fourth grade was when the drama began. I remember being out sick for two days that year. These were two days that have stuck with me. I went through my elementary years scared of cooties and glued to only two other girls. Every day one of us were out, the other two felt trapped in a world of strangers. Those two days, I had been out with a fever. Upon my return to school, my two best friends ran to embrace me; apparently, the life of fourth graders at Fernbank Elementary school had changed. Suddenly, groups were forming among the kids of our grade. The "cool" kids were the boys that ran around chasing girls and the "cool" girls were the ones that feared one touch of a boy. This was how our fourth grade was silently categorized with me and my two friends as girls who were acquainted with the "cool" but didn't find outrunning young boys amusing. To add to the hype of my dramatic fourth grade year, I was undoubtedly in love with the COOL guy of the fourth grade. It was totally out of a fiction story: the invisible girl who sincerely falls for the school hot shot. Could I have been the only one out there in such a tragic position? Of course, not. no I didn't know anyone who was stuck in my situation, but I was sure going to find someone. Avalon High by Meg Cabot. Of course this had some super natural theories, but it was about an ordinary girl who falls for the hottie of the school and the best part was she got him! This only got me started in this teenage love genre. As I got older, so did the books I read. It went from books including petty high school relationships to a book about unconditional love that keeps a couple together in time in The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. For four years, I've been reading nonstop romantic novels. My favorite author, so far, has been Sarah Dessen. Back then, i'd use books as an escape. I'd find it as a world wear happy ending actually existed. Since then, though, I have found much more pleasure in reading for pleasure. It's still an escape, but now Im more interested in not if two characters will make it to prom but more interested in whether or not one charachter can save the world. I want to read about a world I can never visit. This summer, I will focus to widen my reading horizon so when Im asked about the books I read, they don't all have the same outcome: Boy gets girl.