Why I Read

“Some books leave us free and some books make us free.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

I never used to be much of a reader. If fact I detested it throughout college and much of my youth and time in the military. Looking back, this was quite unfortunate, for I absolutely deprived myself of substantial growth. It’s hard to say why exactly this was the case, but I do know I had a very distracted mind back then.

It wasn’t until I decided I didn’t want to stay in the military and make it a career that I realized I didn’t KNOW much else at the time. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, let alone how I would get there even if I did. I had a burning desire to do something meaningful, along the lines of helping others, but I could not articulate it, nor envision it. I felt stuck in an unimaginative mind.

Then Christina gifted me this book, which I wish I could remember its title, back in 2018, that changed everything and could be implicated in setting me on the course I’m on today. Among other things, the author told me to read, every day, for 30 minutes. He imparted this idea, that I’ve turned into my own over the years: “How could I know what I’m building on if I don’t know what I am building upon?” I haven’t put a book down since then and have never felt freer than I do now. As the great and powerful Dr. Seuss himself aptly said:

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”

Dr. Seuss

Let’s see how many places and how far I will go.