My parents got divorced when I was five years old. Almost immediately my mom and I moved to a new town. Then when I was eight my mom got remarried, and we moved to a new town again. By the time I was ten we had moved again. Unfortunately each move meant a new school, so at ten years old I had gone to four different elementary schools.
This of course could be tough on a kid at any age, but it can be especially tough at a young age. Each time you change schools you have to learn how to adjust to going to a new school, and make new friends. Then one day just as you start to fit in, bam you have to move again. Time to start all over.
One thing that was the same at every school is that you got to go to the library at least once a week for class time. The librarian would also hand out order forms for you to order new books to be delivered to you once a month. I would get so excited when my order would come in. Even at an early age I loved going to the library, and getting books to read.
My love for reading books started when I got my first library card from the public library. I was around six or seven years old. My after school babysitter at the time encouraged me to get one. She did this during one of our weekly trips to the library to check out books for her kids. I will always be grateful to her for encouraging me to get that first library card, and helping me discover my love for reading. To this day I can still remember how proud I was to get that library card. I carried it around in my wallet for a few years, even though we no longer lived in the town where it came from. One of the first things that I did when moving to the next place was to get a new library card. I still have that card today.
With all of the moves from place to place reading became a constant in my life. I was a very shy person, so I spent a lot of time at home in my room reading. One of my earliest book memories is reading the book The Mouse and The Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary. I remember reading all about the adventures that Ralph S. Mouse went on, and devouring the whole series quickly. Reading a book can take you to a different place, and a different time. Sitting on my comfy bean bag, and getting lost in a book was always wonderful to me.
Of course that was many years ago now, and thru the years I have had lots of favorite books. As an adult a friend suggested that I read a book by Nicolas Sparks called A Message In A Bottle. Once again I devoured all of his books, and my love for the romance genre was born. Today I am still an avid reader, and I also love to attend book signings to meet my favorite authors. No matter how many years have gone by, I still like to curl up with a great book and get lost in another world.
