I love to read! And I read everything.. YES I really mean everything!! I read children’s books, I read teen fiction.. I read fantasy, I read young adult.. I read self-help, I read non-fiction… I read historical fiction.. and non-fiction.. I read futuristic sci-fi.. English literature… Old lit, new lit….

I read anything…

I don’t LIKE everything I read.. but I still have to finish..

It is actually addictive. My first and only real addiction. An addiction that, at times in my life, keeps me from being productive and functioning. I had to learn to control it.. and believe me there are NO nicotine patches to help Reading Addicts. No Readers Anonymous groups. Some people (maybe even you) think that I am funny to even try to curb my addiction. However, I KNEW that I had (ok.. ok.. I HAVE) a problem.. and I KNEW that I needed to control it. And control it I have.

Now, I can’t give up reading.. that would be like asking me to give up breathing.. but I have learned to keep it to free time.

..well mostly…

Through my years of reading I can honestly say TWO things..

FIRST.. Students miss out on so much History because we insist that they learn all the “dates”. I honestly can’t tell you the exact month and day the civil war ended. But I can tell you why the Civil War started.. why it was important to our history.. and why it was different than any other war we fought. I could tell you that they used Maggots for Medicinal purposes.. and that the North was over dressed. Students can learn so much from our History.. but instead most of them hate it… Is this our teachers faults? Absolutely not.. it is because the schools rely on test results for funding. And what are ON those tests? Exactly… Dates!

SECOND.. Fact is stranger than fiction. In point of truth.. all my research shows that History? OUR History… is stranger than fiction. Strange weather phenomenons… wildcat attacks in Michigan… a trend to abduct the girl next door so she would be forced to marry you? These are all facts. And shoving maggots into gunshot wounds during the civil war? While turning my stomach.. I still find it interesting that this FACT saved so many lives..

In fact, when you read about all the things that pioneers in this country did? When you read about the things they saw.. what they lived through? It makes my life seem so boring.. so sheltered.  And while the pioneers’ lives were much shorter in 1860? While the Civil War soldiers may have died fighting for what they believed in at a young age? They still lived much fuller lives that I am…

So my goal this year is to go out and actually LIVE my life .. as fully as they did their short ones. And hopefully encourage others to do so as well….