How I became a reader

It dawned on me recently how funny it is that I am now an avid reader and writer. Growing up, my mom fought tooth-and-nail to get me to read. She had some luck for a bit, but it quickly fizzled out. The only series that really latched on was “A series of Unfortunate Events” by Lemony Snicket. Thankfully, the series was fourteen books, so she technically got me to read fourteen books. Other than that, I didn’t really like novels. 

But can you blame me? When you go to school for eight hours a day, where they make you read boring textbooks for hours on end, then send you home with a few more hours of reading, how are we supposed to find the time, let alone the energy, to do any personal reading? With what little time I had left in the day, I wanted to pursue something of interest to me! No more “should-be’s!” Is that such a bad thing?

Shortly after we transitioned from homeschooling to regular schooling, we called truce on this front. Mom no longer bugged me about reading, and I took up music instead of video games, so everybody won. There was one point in middle school where I took an interest in the famous metal band Korn, and their guitarist Brian “Head” Welch. You see, he left the band because of his faith and wound up writing a book about it. From my teenage years all the way till twenty-six years old, that was probably the only book I actually finished (I technically read most of Beowulf for school, and another book for college, but I didn’t read the last chapter to keep my streak up. They don’t count.) I realized that I liked the style because it was simple and straightforward. I had a hard time with novels because there was always a lot going on and I could never keep track of everything happening. I chuckle now, because some of my favorite books are by people who aren’t authors by profession. They write just like they talk, and it’s easier to make sense of. 

So I finished middle school, high school and college, doing as little reading as humanly possible (college was fun because I relied on my notes and attendance grades to get me through classes. A fact that shocked professors when I later told them.) I spent about three years out of college not reading a gosh-darn thing. I was still pretty smart, but if I needed to know something, I relied on someone telling me or youtube to help me out. 

Then something funny happened. I was twenty-six and it was Christmas time. My little brother went out on a limb and bought me a book titled “Be a Man!” It’s funny, I don’t even know the name of the author. He just goes by “The ‘Be a Man!’ guy.” But it was similar to reading Brian Welch’s story, where the man wasn’t an “author” by trade. He didn’t try to pepper his chapters with fancy words and plenty of details all happening at once. He had a very “tell it like it is” approach to writing, and I loved it. I remember he told one story about how he was working as a bouncer and somebody hit him real hard, only to find out that it was this guy’s girlfriend. He didn’t tell it dramatically like it was some sort of epic adventure. He, word-for-word, writes “I got socked harder than I’d ever been socked before!” It was refreshing to hear someone write this way. Page after page made sense to me, and I actually got something out of it. I came to really enjoy the style. That “write like you talk” mentality is the ideal I strive for in my own writing. I try to make things as simple as possible. I can respect someone who doesn’t have to butter things up to get a nice message across. If you can’t dumb it down for even the simplest of men, you don’t know what you’re talking about (or you’re just too annoying to listen to anyway.) 

But this also made me realize something: I really like books as a means of gaining wisdom. Sure, there’s nothing that replaces real-life interaction with people far older and wiser than you, but not everyone has access to that. Plus, sometimes you need a nice way to unwind at the end of the day. A person can sometimes be obnoxious or just flat out unavailable when you want them to be. A book is a good substitute to get some of that wisdom in your own time and at your own pace. It also helped me wrestle with some ideas from growing up. I had one or two books that reminded me a bit of some of the crazier people from my school. I decided rather than tossing those ideas aside, I would use it as an opportunity to face those fears head-on. I would read until I’d start to get nervous, then put the book down for a while. It was almost poetic for me, representing this idea that I was in control of my past. I could tell it to buzz off whenever I pleased. But, you know what? Something weird started happening: I realized that more than half of these guys had half-decent points to make. It can be tough to hear sometimes, but correction is an important thing for growth. The problem, I found, with the people I grew up around, was that they didn’t teach it well. Things like how my school fought against dating, sacrificing all the fun stuff on Sundays, other ideas that seemed like just a bunch of crap to make us miserable, started making sense to me. I still don’t go along with most of it, but it doesn’t ruffle my feathers like it used to. 

Wisdom has also become the foundation of why I write. I want to share my insights with others. Growing up, I was told a lot that I was good at writing. I tried and tried to make it work, but I never liked doing it. In my kid-mind, the only thing there was to write was stories. I searched far and wide to find the passion to do what I was apparently good at. Eventually I dug my heels in and just started writing. I figured if I kept doing it, I would eventually start liking it. I was definitely wrong about that. It was a phase I went through for a bit. It came and went like a summer breeze and left just as quickly. 

But around the time I got into reading, people kept telling me I should get back into writing as well. I pushed back on the idea for a while, but once I realized what I liked about reading, I tried channeling that inspiration into my writing. It worked like a charm, and now I love it so much, I write every day! I really like writing because it isn’t about the artform, it’s a way to get some of what’s in my head out into the world.It isn’t like music, where you spend years pounding away at it, just to be able to develop your own footing. Hopefully my work is proving useful to some of you. If not, at least you’re being entertained by it, right?

Right?

I think that’s the takeaway, here: if you want to commit to doing something, dig deep into why you’re doing it. Define and redefine your why, until it’s something that really clicks with you. I’ll admit, there are days when I don’t feel like writing. I have other days where I can’t find anything to say. But when I sit down and dedicate myself to finding something, I finish a piece feeling satisfied that I pushed myself to do it. If you want something to work out and you want to be good at it, you have to put in some effort. Most people think putting in effort just means being stubborn and never quitting. That’s part of it, but a bigger part is refining the process. You have to ask yourself why and be willing to reshape that why. Try a different approach, learn songs in a new genre, do a different type of workout. Play around with things until you find something that really clicks. Then, once you have that click moment, push work as hard as you can. Run until you’re sick, then get up and run some more! Get really good at something and it will never let you down. 

I pray you find some guidance from these words, as so many have guided me up to this point. I pray I can benefit you in some way so that you can grow and become a better person. I pray you find that thing you want to do and develop a deep, powerful why. Tweak it until you have your click moment, then run with all your heart once you’ve got it. Because there’s no better way to live your life than running at top speed against the wind!

Until next time

May Peace be your guide.