Reading is a part of every young child's life. When I was a child, reading was my absolute favorite way to spend a day. My mom and I would go to the library every now and then and I would find some books to bring home to start reading. This was extremely exciting to me because reading was a big part of my childhood and remained there while growing up. Some of my favorites were the Magic Tree House series. Every time I picked up a new one, it'd take me on a whole new adventure. I loved every second of reading and it never got dull, reading a new book never just never got old to me. The Dr. Seuss series were books that just captured my attention and kept me wanting every single book in the series by their bright colors and captivating illustrations. I remember asking my grandma to buy me them, and being a typical grandma, she did. One of my strongest memories of reading were the reading plans that you would do to get Great America tickets. I would read all day and all night just to get those priced tickets for a day at Six Flags. I did those for a few summers and was able to have fun at Six Flags, which made it all worth it.
Now that I'm older, reading has left my life for the most part, I don't read books for fun anymore because I can't seem to have to attention span to sit down and read. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy a good book when I happen to find one. I have read some books over the years that I have definitely gotten a place in my all time favorites. West Side Story is one of my favorite books and always will be, this book is one that I just seemed to get totally wrapped up with and was able to enjoy from beginning to end. The Outsiders is another one that I loved even though it made me cry, it's one of my favorites.
Reading was a big part of my life while growing up and influenced much of what I think today. That's what of the most important facts of reading, it can shape who you are. The story lines, characters, themes all presented in a story don't just go in one ear and out the other, they stay. This then can influence how you feel about a situation, or even how you might act. It's silly for one to believe that a book is just a story, it's much more than that. It's filled with real-life scenarios that can shape how we live.
Do you know what you want to do when you grow up? That's a question that gets asked many times to a student in high school as they're planning a career. Sometimes, they don't exactly know what they're going to do, but know it's essential that they get it figured out, and sometimes, they don't. Planning your life and deciding how your going to support yourself is a extremely important question and decision to any young person. I watch the news, read articles and I first hand can see people who are deeply struggling in life just to get by, just to get their next meal. They might have not known exactly what they wanted to do with their life, and they did not have a steady job that would give them a solid salary. The workers that Barbara Ehenreich worked with during her minimum wage experiment in Nickel and Dimed, were people that didn't exactly know what they were going to be when they grew up, and they now struggle day to day, working ten harder than some millionaires do, to be rewarded with measly minimum wage. I wonder at times how that is even fair, but that's the type of life that comes with low wage jobs.
When I am asked that typical high school question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?", I seem to have a grasp on an idea or concept of what I would enjoy doing for the rest of my life, but I'm still a little indecisive. I remember being a young kid, just six years old, saying I wanted to be a singer, then changing and wanting to be a doctor, then I wanted to be a nurse, but now 11 years later, I'm not exactly sure. I definitely want to continue my education after high school to pursue a career that I would make a good salary off of. I want to have a job where I could better someone else. I know that this takes a good amount of work and I can't just breeze through the rest of school, especially college and even more importantly the rest of my life without putting forth effort and drive. I now realize after reading Nickel and Dimed, and noticing the struggles every minimum wage worker Ehenreich worked with went through, I know what I need to do. If I want to achieve a comfortable life and knowing that I'm going to be okay economically, my effort needs to reflect that.
In Nickel and Dimed, Ehenreich and her coworkers worked jobs that help a general cause, such as housekeeping and being a waitress. I would love to have a job where I could do something that would improve someones health, their outlook on life, their money situation, anything to make a betterment for somebody else. I hear about just one person making such a positive impact on somebody else's life, when their just doing their job. That would be something I would love to do, whether it be a psychologist, a physical therapist, I really just don't know, but as time goes on I know I'll be able to finally decide exactly what I want to do.
