I read because it teaches me to love,

To care, to dream

To be adventurous 

It helped me to find who I truly am inside,

To detemine who my real friends were

And to find my inner strengths.

It taught me that it is okay to be a misfit,

A rebel, a troublemaker,

To be a round peg in a square hole,

To be the one who sees the world a little differently.

 

Fiction isn't just a story to me.

It's discovering who you truly are and seeing things that others don't.

It's finding your inner beauty and standing up for what is right.

It's breaking the barriers and finding love in the darkest of places.

It's learning what true sacrifice means,

And what it is to be a hero.

 

People have told me my entire life 

"Get your head out of that book and go make some friends!"

Now I tell people

"Get your head out of your phones."

 

In a book, I have somone that I look up to- good or bad, friend or foe.

In a book, a person is more real and raw than any other entity.

Some strugle and die,

Some fight and win.

But I don't spend my life wanting to be them,

I want to be like them.

They are human, they have their bad times and good,

They fall in love and get their hearts broken,

They get stomped on and kicked around,

But they also get up in the end.

No matter what, they live on.

In our hearts, on the pages, in my memories and in me.

 

So no,

I wasn't born looking into a screen or worshipping stars

I was born with the stars in my eyes.

I was born with friends who you couldn't always see, but were ALWAYS there.

And I REFUSE to give up and give in.

 

So criticize and chastise me all you want.

They may be fictional to you

But they are more than real to me.