The Set Up
I was thinking yesterday on how grateful I am for my love of reading. It not only kept me entertained as a child, it became a passion of mine that led to a love affair with almost all things considered literature.
I thought back to the moment of introduction into the world of books and realized that it was a set up. At 6 years-old I attended a Christian Academy for one year. It took a bit of getting used to since my teacher, though nice, was a paddler and I was a talker.
Every morning we would give her our spelling or we would get in line to be paddled. I made the mistake of talking one time during the first week of class when the assignment was bing given and showed up the next morning only to realized with terror that I didn't have the homework she was asking for. I hesitantly got in line and suffered the humilation of the other children watching while I anxiously awaited my punishment. I think I was crying before it was even my turn, not out of fear, but mortification for being thought of as 'bad'. This shaped everything else I did in that class and I figured if I paid attention, did my work and kept quiet I could become invisible.
Two months later my parents were pulled into a teacher's conference because my reading and spelling were suffering. When they asked me if there was something in particular that was getting in my way, I couldn't think of anything.
They soon enrolled my into 'The Reading Game' a one-on-one after school learning center. Two years later I was told that I would no longer have to go to' The Reading Game' because they had done such a good job I was reading at the 9th grade level in the 3rd grade. Thus began my insatiable thirst for reading.
Two months into my first semester in the 3rd grade I was taken for my first eye exam. I was diagnosed with an aggressive form of Myopia (near sighted). After a couple more months of test the doctor said that it must have been going on for a couple of years.
