I really enjoy reading because I have fun learning about characters and their situations and how they change throughout the course of the book. Sometimes I really connect with the characters in the books I read, which is mostly why I like reading.
Unfortunately, I don't make a whole lot of time to read on a daily basis, but I would like to change that. The biggest obstacle I face in making time for reading is the fact that I hate sitting down and actually starting a book, even though I know I'll really like it. I am either reading constantly, every single day, or not even touching a book for months. I read a lot of the same books multiple times because sometimes I have trouble branching out.
The worst reading experience I had this year was reading The Color of Water. I can mostly handle sad books, but TCOW was really depressing and really prevented me from enjoying it. I also could not relate to the main character at all, which made it even harder to read.
I have gotten "lost in a book" many times, but the last time was when I read The Perks of Being a Wallflower. It is one of my favorite books and I loved reading about the main character's freshman year of high school. It made me cry at the end, and I feel like a book has to be really good to be able to do that to you.
I think choosing books independently is really important to me because I like reading really specific kinds of books. A lot of the time when I have to read a book for school, it puts me off because I don't like what it's about or I don't like the way it's written.
My main goal is to read more books more frequently. I enjoy reading, I just don't do it enough.
The best part of blogging was that I got to talk about some of the books I've read. The worst part about blogging was that I had to keep up with it, which I didn't do a good job of.
There is some value in making your "reading life" public in that you get to share some of your favorite books with your classmates and the world.
I would like more prompted blogging, because I sometimes have trouble knowing what to say about a book I'm reading.
I changed a lot over the course of my freshman year! I have a much more positive outlook on everything and I've made close friends by participating in marching band, which is the first time I've ever participated in any kind of extra-curriculars in school. I've also learned that I really need to start putting in the effort to get where I want to be in school and in life in general, but I've been motivated to do so, which is very unlike how I was in middle school.
One out standing positive experience for me is marching band, which has taught me hard work, dedication, and what it's like to work together with intensely talented people who have a unified passion to create something we are all incredibly proud of. It has opened me up to new people and friends and made me much more confident in myself. I can genuinely say that I have more than 300 people in marching band who really care about me and every other person in the band, because at the end of the day, we are a team.
I didn't face too many challenges this year, other than learning how to be more comfortable with speaking in front of a large group I'm not very familiar with. I overcame it by just doing it, and while I'm not totally comfortable yet, I'm getting there.
My goal for sophomore year is to make more friends and and become more comfortable speaking to people I don't know that well.
