On Reading

I have always been an avid reader. When I was a child I read under the sheets with a flashlight. I considered myself a slow reader because I just couldn't get through a book fast enough. In high school I was in a college level English class, we read a novel every two weeks. I told my teacher "We have lives you know." She snapped back, "You'll have a better life if you can get through my book list." I hated her for the torture she put us through. Some of us cried, pulled all nighters and wrote papers like we had nothing better to do. To make matters worse, we had a foreign exchange student from Japan that year and she learned to read, write and speak English the summer before she took Mrs Lipski's class. She was the top student, I was the second to the top. I always tried to out do her, but Mrs. Lipski would always announce the best and then say Lisa had the second highest grade. One day I cornered the super smart girl from Japan and I said, "Why do you have a need to out do us?" She said, "I have this opportunity, I am trying so hard to do my best." Well, you can't argue with that. Years later I saw Mrs. Lipski at Winns, wow Winns-remember that 5 and dime store? I saw her from a distance and I slowly walked up to her, all the while thinking of what I would say, and I said, "Hello Mrs. Lipski, I had you my senior year for English, I saw you and I wanted to thank you for making us read your book list. I am so glad that you put me through such a hard time in your class. It paid off. Thanks. She said, "Lisa, I will never forget you in my class, you were the only student I ever had that argued with me about things that didn't even need an argument. We both laughed and said good-bye. My life is better because of that book list. I smiled the whole day.