Read Across America Day 2011

I was a weird kid.

The revelation probably doesn't come as a total surprise, but I'll attempt to justify my eccentricities by noting I attended five different schools before ninth grade.

When I moved to my third school in fifth grade, I decided I was officially done with making friends.

I spent every recess sitting against a wall near our classroom door, reading a book.

Before long, I became somewhat of a freak show attraction. I watched my classmates whisper while brainstorming ways to lure me away from my book and onto the playground.

The thing is, I wasn't really lonely. I kind of enjoyed existing in a bubble and only befriending fictional people whose allegiances existed only between a novel's pages.

It wasn't entirely healthy, though. Eventually, I learned a valuable lesson:

Books can be an escape, but they can also urge you to live beyond their chapters' limits.

Happy Read Across America Day!