My Love For Reading
Ashun, Jessica

JESSICA: I remember when I was little my dad would tell me three stories. They were "David and Goliath", "Daniel and the Lion's Den", and "Jesus feeds Five Thousand". And I always thought he was the greatest story teller, probably just because he was my dad. I really enjoyed the stories. He would make me get all tucked into bed and then he started telling me the story. My favorite part was in the very beginning when he was like, "Goliath was nine feet tall and he came and he wanted to fight the Israelites and all the soldiers were scared and then little David came and he was like 'I'll fight.'" I would get so excited and I asked him, "And then what? And then what?" By the time the story was finished I was really pumped and I wanted to go out and fight all the giants and throw stones at them. I remember there were probably no giants around but I would fall asleep with these really cool images in my head where I was David and I would have a sling and a little stone and I would hit the giant right in the middle of his head and he would fall over. I'd wake up and be even more excited and I would go to my brother and be like, "I have this really cool story to tell you." And I'd tell him the story like I was really David and like it really happened to me. He would just laugh and be like, "That is not your story, you stole it." And I was always like, "No I didn't. This is my story. I had that journey." He would just laugh. Reading was always encouraged by my parents and the funny thing was that I was the youngest and my older brothers and sisters were like, "You're so lame for reading. You're a nerd." It was funny because I kind of played into the role like I loved going to the library, I loved reading. They always laughed because I would be tucked into a corner with a book and I'd be so happy. I'd be laughing and smiling and they'd be like, "This girl is so weird. Why is she laughing?" Sometimes they'd ask me what was funny and I'd tell them and they'd just look at me even weirder because it was just never funny to them. I always got joy out of reading and being told stories. It was kind of like an escape to me because reading, you could become any of the characters in the book, you didn't just have to be yourself, I didn't just have to be me. And then telling stories, I can make up anything I want, I can be a princess and there can be a toad - that was usually my brother - but reading was always an escape to me and I always enjoyed it.