A Little Piece of Me

I am from a pretty big city. Big traditions, a big population, and even big people. My hometown is a top ten candidate for one of the most obese cities in the United States. The main event to prove those statistics to be true, is the annual Minnesota State fair. You can get anything from large glasses of fresh milk to deep fried candy bars! This fair has been a huge part of growing up! Every year, my family and I, would wake up at 6:00am to start getting ready. We wore matching t-shirts and neon colored fanny packs. My small family of four were some of the most stylin' people there. We would take pictures in the photo booths, pet the cows, and ride up and down the space needle until it was time to go home. We would normally get home around midnight, exhausted from walking, with tons of dirt caked on our skin. Those were some of the best times of my life. 

Although the fair was the highlight of our summers, there was still a downside to it. Once we saw the rides being set up, our hearts would ache, this meant that school started in a week. Immediate images of desks and pencils and books were consuming our minds. The thought of- ugh how many books will I be forced into reading this year?- would haunt me until the first day of school. I hated reading while growing up. We were required to read 25 books a year and I was not an efficient reader. I also never had an interest in fantasy stories or goosebumps, like the rest of my peers. So for 17 years of my life I refused to read for pleasure. 

I have recently become interested in reading, ever since someone recommended Mitch Albom's books to me. The first novel I read of his was Tuesdays With Morrie. It is a sweet and sincere story that blew me away. Since then, I have read 4 more of his novels, and branched out to all different types of books. Now I finally read for fun and not just for class. The two books I would greatly recommend are Tuesdays With Morrie and Five People You Meet in Heaven, by Mitch Albom. He is a fantastic writer that will leave you feeling endless amounts of compassion for everyone around you.