This is the voice-over narration that I will make for my digital storytelling project.
I love reading. Every year, my New Year’s Resolution is to read more books than the year before. One of the best purchases I ever made was an Ikea bookshelf for all of my novels. Reading offers me a nice escape from reality; a place where I can go to procrastinate without feeling guilty.
In high school, I seldom read books for leisure. I was so overwhelmed with my extra-curriculars and AP classes that I thought of reading as a chore. That changed in college, of course. I read a variety of authors and genres during my undergraduate years in order to complete my Bachelor’s Degree in English. However, when I was a kid, I was a picky reader and did not stray too far from one particular series.
My love of reading began in first grade. My teacher, Mrs. Kennedy, made it her top priority that every student would leave her classroom a proficient reader. I don’t know about any of the other thirty-odd students that Mrs. Kennedy had that year, but my six-year-old self realized that it was pretty important that I take the time to learn how to sound out letters and figure out what they meant.
My mom and I read together almost every night. I have fond memories of reading with my mom. She often tells me how one night it suddenly clicked for me. Like as if reading was some sudden realization and I had had an epiphany. She often describes me lying in bed one night, reading aloud and stumbling over words until suddenly I looked up and said, “I got it! I know what the words say!'” As if I had finally cracked some secret code in life and the light bulb illuminated in my brain.
I also remember being a competitive little kid. One of the boys in my class began reading the Harry Potter series, and Mrs. Kennedy would praise him in front of everyone for this marvelous accomplishment. Well I had had Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone sitting on my bookshelf for as long as I could remember. “I can read that book,” I thought to myself. It took me months, but I finally finished the book.
I completely remember the day I read the last page of the first Harry Potter novel. I was sitting on the couch in the family room of my parents’ house when my mom walked in the door after work. In a strange way, I remember feeling like Harry. He had just had this wonderful and exciting adventure at Hogwarts. And I had been there with him, too, through it all! When suddenly, reality hits Harry and he arrives at King’s Cross station where the Dursley’s are waiting for him. They have no idea what he has just gone through, nor do they take in the significance. Of course, my mom is not at all like the Dursley’s. But she did not really understand what I had just went through, with Harry. It was as if I had been with Harry all this time and suddenly closed the book only to be transported back to Twinsburg, Ohio, as my mom comes in and asks me “what’s so funny?” as I smile and giggle thinking of all the adventures I had just witnessed at Hogwarts and all I could do was smile and say “nothing” because that’s the only acceptable thing to say at a time like this.
Of course, my love for Harry Potter has only grown deeper over the past almost two decades. Since I can’t actually go to Scotland, I went to see Hogwarts at Universal Studios in Orlando. And I finally got around to reading the novel in its original, British English form: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
I have seen all the movies, and reread all the books. I only hope that one day when I get to be a real teacher with my own classroom, that I can teach my future students how to love books as much as Mrs. Kennedy taught me.
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