Reading has made me who I am today. That’s not an exaggeration. There were undoubtedly other factors but reading is probably the single greatest factor in my decision to pursue a career in the army. Every week in elementary school, we would go to the library to check out books. Every week I would walk out of the library with a military book. These were barely more than picture books, but they had me hooked on the military. Around 4th grade, I got a book with 10 stories of Medal of Honor recipients from World War I and another from the Vietnam War. Reading the stories of these heroes only further strengthened my desire to be in the military. The military readings died off for a bit in middle school when I got big into fantasy books, but then I started to mow lawns. I mowed a lot of lawns in high school, and eventually, listening to music got boring, so I started doing audiobooks. I listened to around a book a week for 7 months out of the year for 3 years, almost all of which were military books. I listened to stories of paratroopers during World War II, Green Berets in Vietnam, Rangers in Somalia, and Marines in Afghanistan. This gave me a lot of people who had done impressive things to look up to. Reading helped me develop goals for my life. It led me to want to serve in the army, a goal that developed into becoming a commissioned officer, which then became attending West Point. Saying that reading has impacted who I am today would be an understatement. It has defined who I am.
PS-Thank you, Jeana Christofferson, my elementary school librarian, who asked this week about what impact my elementary school reading habits had on my decision to go to West Point. She still remembers me checking out all those books.
Warren,
Thank you so much for sharing your story about the impact of reading. It is inspirational to think about the reality of your life now, based on all those things you learned while reading about things that military people do and have done that are impressive and inspiring. That doesn’t mean that what they do and have done does not come with great sacrifice, persistence, hard work and grit. There is something to be said of “Duty, Honor, Country” that have come to dictate what you ought to be, what you can be and what you will be. So proud of you Warren and honored to have been a witness to your journey of decisions that have lead you to become a commissioned officer and now attending West Point.
May I have your permission to share your post and a picture of your Halloween costume for at least 4 years? Plus share a picture of you now during library as I continue to encourage reading and especially this week as we honor those who serve in the military for Veteran’s Day?
Much love,
Jeana Christofferson
Freedom Elementary Librarian.