As Tiktok celebrity and social justice icon Peaches says, “showering is just a trend,” however, if we replace the word showering with reading, that statement suddenly becomes false. 

(Yes, that is the start of the article, I’m glad we’re all on the same page here.)

Reading is not just a trend… reading is like sign language, but with letters and that’s a very bold thing for anyone to consider. So besides the little voice in our heads or reading with an audiobook, reading is one of the few activities that requires us to look at something, visualize it and create a story using our ~ i m a g i n a t i o n ~. Pretty wild. 

Of course on every topic, there are those that will inherently agree with whatever absolute literary genius, and this topic is no exception. To all of the English teachers out there and the students that read in their free time, this one isn’t for you. Really, it’s for people who do not read. Shoutout to the truly illiterate folks (maybe ask someone to read this to you), the folks that are actually proficient readers, but just choose not to follow that path and the kids who were called “gifted” in elementary/middle school and now have no work ethic. 

Personally, I quite enjoy reading. It’s always been in the back of my mind as something I could do, as well as something to make me smarter, however up until recently I only relied on random Google searches and YouTube video tutorials to learn about the ever-expanding known universe. 

My opposition to reading wasn’t because of time, though. It came because of my laziness to actually better myself. As I’ve learned, this was a dumb excuse because, in fact, braincells get burned in your cerebellum when you concentrate too hard and then regrow in your portabello. Yeah, I believe I read somewhere *wink wink* that they grow back just like how Groot died and then was Stick Groot that turned into Baby Groot and is probably back to being Adult Groot by now, so in any case it’s really an interesting process. 

Lastly, you can change your mindset to reading just by starting. Over the weekend I read a book, so I’m basically an avid reader now. I’ll never abandon it again and will always remember where I started. *Yells “Thank you, Rick Riordan” out my bedroom window.* My current goal for my literary endeavors is to do the “24-hour can’t stop, won’t stop” Challenge and maybe even say I did the “I read a thousand books in a year, what have you done with your life” Challenge. If I keep this rate of reading up, maybe I’ll be done with another book in two days, and then I’ll have three more days to finish another one and then another three days… essentially I’ve apotheosized into a GOD, all because of reading. 

Think of all the time I have now. I can read Sartres, Kant, Rilke, Marx, Nietche, Lenin, the works. I’ve eliminated the totality of my procrastination habits, as well as my sleeping and eating time. Fingers crossed I can keep the streak.