Reading and language have been part of my life since as far back as I can remember.

We had an Accelerated Reading program in elementary school. Books were assigned points on the reading level. We would read these books for points—more points as level advanced—then take comprehension tests on its content.

I remember being bored of my grade's reading level and wanted to try to get the most points, grabbing the yellow tagged books from the library—anything around 10th grade and above. Throughout elementary school, I was picking up Jane Austen, Mark Twain, Lois Lowry, Jonathan Swift, Madeleine L'Engle, Jules Verne, K.A. Applegate, and J.R.R. Tolkien.

I didn't understand everything I read—I still regularly find myself revisiting these authors, reading as now-me, helping me also remember past-me's—but the fun came from the challenge of trying to understand what was going on, what the words were, while get lost in the tales of others.