Rediscovering my love for reading: a surprisingly strenuous yet deeply rewarding road

 

In elementary school, I was all in on reading. Whether I was in the car, getting ready for bed, or even sitting in recess, there was a book in my hand. I was going on trips to the library weekly, picking up titles belonging to every genre in the Young Adult section. I even went as far as joining a local Battle of the Books competition (my team even made it to the semi-finals!) and Shakespeare Club, which met before school weekly. All of my free time was spent reading, and I was perfectly content with this. 

 

However, as I got older, I began to lose interest in reading in favor of other hobbies, like scrolling through YouTube or playing video games with my friends. Additionally, I was experiencing a story we’ve all heard before: a child grows up loving reading but starts to lose interest when they are assigned classic titles to read and analyze in school. As I started to become busier with home obligations, spending time with friends, and junior-high-level homework assignments, I realized that I didn’t have the time to read even if I wanted to. 

 

As high school started, my free time became even more scarce. I joined a couple of time-consuming clubs during the school year, and I started working during the summer after freshman year. Besides reading whatever books I was being forced to read for my English classes, I was quickly abandoning my favorite hobby in favor of simpler activities, like scrolling through my phone. 

 

As a current senior, I have spent a lot of time reflecting on myself and what aspects of my life I want to carry on to college and what I would like to change. As I began to think about what I have been doing in my free time, I was disappointed in how much time I wasted “doomscrolling,” which for me is an activity that feels good in the moment but doesn’t often provide any personal satisfaction or growth. Especially not in the way reading had. 

 

So, I decided to set out on a mission to rediscover my love for reading. Surely, a hobby that had been so important to me for so long and brought me so much happiness would be easy to jump right back into. 

 

I could not have been more wrong. 

 

I started by grabbing one of the many unread books on my shelf (after all, buying books is much easier than reading them!). I grabbed a bookmark, flipped the book open to chapter one, and got ready to read. 

 

I’m getting ready to read. 

 

Maybe I could just read later. 

 

This unexpected dilemma took hold over and over again. I would think I was ready to start reading, sit down to do it, and stop. It would often feel like reading seemed too boring or too big a task, and looking at my phone would be way more fun. 

 

I decided to start researching ways to encourage myself to read, and I felt better learning that there is science behind the choice I was making to abandon reading in favor of electronics and social media. When an individual watches video media, they are being highly visually and mentally stimulated. This delivers high mental arousal, and since the brain actively seeks out high levels of arousal, it becomes a very addicting activity. 

 

Although reading books does stimulate the brain, the activity lacks the fast-moving images and engaging sounds that visual media provides. This stark contrast in arousal between the activities often leads people to choose the latter over the former, which perfectly describes the dilemma I was facing. 

 

Although I felt reassured by my findings, I was still determined to find a way to get back into reading. I continued my research, this time focusing on how I could encourage myself to follow through with my plans to read. I stumbled upon a blog post written by someone in my same boat. The post mentioned how the author keeps themself on a strict reading routine, which keeps them engaged. As someone who thrives on very organized schedules, I thought this would be the perfect game plan for me. 

 

I decided that I would read for 15 minutes every night before bed. This seemed reasonable to me, as integrating my reading time into my bedtime routine, something that I do every night regardless of what activities I had earlier that day, would be simple. 

 

The first night, it was easy. I was excited, ready to read. 15 minutes went by, but I was so excited to be finally reading that I kept going and going until 30 minutes had passed. This is going to be a breeze! 

 

The next day, I would have a long day at school. I had some tests and a presentation to prepare for, as well as a full shift at work that night. By the time I got off my shift, drove home, ate dinner, studied, practiced my presentation, and got ready for bed, no part of me wanted to start reading. I went to sleep. 

 

The same thing happens the next night. And the next night. 

 

I decided that maybe if I continued posing reading as another chore I had to complete in my day, it would take all of the joy out of it. Planning my reading time at my bedtime just made my routine feel longer, making it feel as unappealing as something I was being forced to do. 

 

It was while sitting in the Conant Main Lot waiting for the 3:30 p.m. madness to die down so that I could leave for work that it hit me. The time spent waiting in my car was a small pocket of free time I had every day that I usually filled by doing meaningless tasks on my phone. It would be a perfect time to fill with my revisited hobby! 

 

I started bringing my book of choice, “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” by Suzanne Collins, to school every day in order to read it in the parking lot. I was getting a solid ten to fifteen minutes in on a daily basis. Even though it didn’t seem like much time-wise, I was able to dedicate a small window of my time that I normally would have been wasting on something more productive. 

 

Not long into this plan, I found myself becoming emotionally invested in my stories during my short bursts of reading. So much so that when time was up and I had to drive to work, I felt sad, wishing I could just keep reading. Oftentimes, I would be so excited to continue where I left off that as soon as my shift was over, I would race home and read some more before doing the rest of my regular evening routine. 

 

A couple of months into this plan, I was really starting to see the benefits of my reading time. I found myself daydreaming about whatever book I was reading, empathizing with the characters and wondering what would happen next, just like I had back in elementary school. This was just the nostalgic, thrilling feeling that I was hoping for. Not only was my time being used for something I viewed as more productive, but the books I was reading added a bit of excitement into my day that I wasn’t used to. 

 

Although some days it is easier to keep up with my reading than others, I am happy to say that reading has become one of my favorite hobbies again. Looking back on my journey, I am proud of my dedication to keeping up with my reading and reflecting on myself to find what methods would work best for me. 

 

As students in high school, it is easy for us to get caught up in a routine and feel like there is not enough time to revisit old hobbies. I implore you to start your own journey to rediscover an old hobby, whether you want to start reading or doing anything else, as not only will you find joy in doing something you used to enjoy, but you will learn a lot more about yourself along the way.