A Book Every Lunch

            Everyone seems to be eating or conversing with each other, yet I don’t hear any of it. It is my freshmen year of high school and there I am sitting in the cafeteria as I read another book. My eyes roam through the pages, taking it all in. Brrrriiinnng. The signal that it is time for me to go to my next period class. That is usually the only thing that would snap me out from the book that I was so immersed in. Of course,I am annoyed by that. I had finally reached the best part of the book only for the school bell to have cut my reading time short. It’s okay though, once I am seated in my class, I still manage to sneak in a bit more before the late bell rings.

            That ended up becoming my routine for about the next two years. I always had to carry a book with me, or else I was left without much to do.It even got to the point where some people just knew me as that one book girl. I never intended for myself to become so used to this, I just happened to find comfort in reading.

            I am not sure exactly when I became so into reading. What I do remember is that as a young child, I would be laying on my bed all day just to read one book. When it was time to go to sleep, my mom would turn off the lights and I wasn’t allowed to turn them back on because of my siblings in the room. Instead I would go and lock myself in the bathroom. I sat there reading my book until I finished it or until I heard my mom saying, “Vane, ya es tiempo para dormí!”(Vane, it’s time to sleep!) So yes, it was obvious that I enjoyed reading even as a young child.

            I never was much of a social person;I was always one of the quiet students. Going to high school showed to be a new experience for me. It was far from my home and I knew no one there. Those first few days of lunch during freshmen year,the girl next to me had tried to talk to me. I did respond to her questions, but I was never one to initiate the conversations. After a while it seemed as if she had stopped trying to talk to me. I wondered why it hadn’t worked out. Then it became obvious. By time she arrived at the table I was already there reading a book. It must’ve seemed like I didn’t want to be disturbed because of how into the book it looked like I was. Yet, I did want others to come up to me, but it never seemed to happen.

            Was doing what I loved really the reason for not having someone to talk to me during lunch? I wondered about it a lot at first.I would look up to the people at the table and smile but never did anything else. Maybe if I wasn’t reading then someone would come up and talk to me? That was not possible though. I just couldn’t stop reading because of something like that. So,I continued to sit there reading my book, but still had hopes of being able to join in the conversations of the people around me.

            Later on, I didn’t seem to mind much anymore. I found myself once again getting caught up in the stories of the books I read. Each new book was a little escape of reality for me.So what if everyone else was talking to each other and laughing. Just because I was reading, didn’t mean I wasn’t having my own fun. Lunch was one of those few times I could finally feel at peace and not worry about other stuff because I had a book to read. When one becomes so engrossed with a book it almost feels as if you yourself are in that story. That feeling is one that I have grown to love.

            Sure enough, during my junior year of high school I ended up becoming close to some friends during lunch. I was no longer sitting by myself reading a book. Just because I finally had what I wanted that first year of high school doesn’t mean that I had stopped reading all together.I still read whenever I got the chance. All I can say is that I am glad about all those times I had a book with me. Reading will always remain as one of my ways in which I am able to break free and enter a new world, even if it is for just a while.