It took me twenty-three years to learn how to read, and this is why. My whole life I have been told that I am not good at reading. It started in kindergarten, when I was taken out of class for extra help. In the 3rd grade I wasn’t keeping up enough with the reading level of my peers, which concerned the adults in the room. What really took the cake was in the fifth grade when my parents had me tested for dyslexia. I do NOT have dyslexia if anyone wants to know. I gave up on reading. I just chalked it up to something I would never be good at, and I let that keep me from reading for a long time.

I woke up one day post grad and realized all of my close friends were readers. I have read so many articles and social media posts about how my generation has forgotten how to read which is wild to me because most of the people I know either love to read or want to find more time to read. It’s all about time management and really giving yourself the space to sit down and read, even if it is not everyday.

In 2024, I was determined to forgive reading from all the years of embarrassment and try to read on my own terms. I think the structure of how I saw reading growing up added so much pressure to the whole process. So I created my own system.

First I was going to research every book I picked and nobody was going to influence my choice. An article I read called “How to Remember what you read,” also mentioned “the more interesting and relevant we find a book, the more likely we are to remember it’s context.” I started with a book written by one of my favorite actors of all time, Lauren Graham, called Someday, Someday, Maybe. It was the perfect first book, which I related to a great amount!

My second rule was that I knew I got tired reading at night, so I planned days where I started waking up early in the morning to get some time to read. You just have to listen to your body and make the time that works for you. Readers growing up have gotten off long form reading because short form reading like social media is more accessible and easier to save time. The same difference between a microwave meal and a home cook one. It’s all in the planning, and no teacher is going to plan out fifteen minutes during your day to sit down and read, that’s on you now.

The third and most important rule to me is that there are no parameters on my reading. Unlike school, I don’t have to read for a specific amount of time or number of pages. I don’t have to finish the chapter or the book in a certain amount of time. If I stopped watching a TV episode in the middle nobody would make a comment, so if you can only get through two pages, that is still progress.

Reading is supposed to be an enjoyable adventure that you create, nobody else. If these methods don’t work for you, try out others like writing in the margins, or talking with your friend about what you like in the novel.

Now 9 months into 2024, I just finished my ninth book! I am so proud of how far I have come since being that little girl who had given up. To me reading is not this lost art, we just have to actively choose it, just like going to the gym each day or scrolling social media.

All that to say, I had to unlearn how to read, to learn how to read again, and you can too!