What is getting me through this semester? The promise of summer, although the weather in Ohio lately has not given me much hope, and the chance to start reading again. 

Over the course of these two semesters, I have allowed my cart of books to collect dust and I cannot seem to push myself to crack one open. It worked for a while, especially at the beginning of this semester, but once again I found myself picking up my phone instead of a paperback. 

I am currently trying to read “Here’s to Us” by Adam Silvera and Becky Albertalli, but I do not even think I’ve made it past chapter three. Now with finals encroaching, I will not be able to force myself to finish the book unless I have nothing else to do. I will instead be holed up in the study room using color-coded examples to make it through my economics final. 

This is devastating for a reader like me who spent so much of my high school life sitting in the dark reading until around two in the morning, repeating my mantra “Only one more chapter.” There was always a book resting on my blue comforter while I snored endlessly until my 6 a.m. alarm woke me up each morning (if I wasn’t shaken awake by my mother at 6:30 a.m.). 

During the COVID shutdown, I read around 200 books and filled up one-and-a-half book journals writing about the endings and how many times I cried after a person, who most certainly did not exist, died in the final chapters. Even over winter break I read three or four books that I loved and rave about to this day. However, it is almost impossible to get myself to read while on campus. Maybe Campion Hall has some protective force around it that does not allow me to read once I step foot into the building. 

I instead have spent my time rewatching comfort shows, knitting on a loom and listening to new music. I am especially excited to watch the new film, “The Idea of You,” which is coincidentally based on a book by Robinne Lee (that I have not read). 

This semester has been a semester of intense, wonderful creative writing, but it has left me without a chance or will to read. Without reading, I know my writing and mental health will spiral, especially over the summer. While working at Katie’s Korner and scooping ice cream precariously onto sugar cones, I will pick up a book when I can and try to make it through around 20 books throughout the break.

All in all, this summer will be my reading extravaganza. I will do whatever it takes to get myself to read because once I get into the groove, I will never want to stop. Books always bring me an immense amount of joy and empathy and without them I feel like less of myself. Books are not meant to meander on shelves and never get picked up; they are meant to bring joy, peace, anger and even sadness into people’s lives and help readers understand more about the world and themselves than they ever could have without them.