Averse to love
Growing up, books and I had a purely transactional relationship. They were a means to an end—I'd read my textbooks and notes, and that was it. The idea of picking up a book for fun felt like extra homework, and who wants that? My aversion to reading was so strong that it took a desperate need to avoid eye contact with strangers on my daily commute to finally pick up a novel. My first real dive was Sidney Sheldon's Tell Me Your Dreams . It was an absolute game-changer, a gateway drug into the wonderful world of fiction. It completely hooked me, and suddenly, I was a full-fledged reader. Since then, I've dived into everything from gritty non-fiction for a dose of reality to fiction that's a one-way ticket to another universe. Nothing beats fiction for a good escape, where you can lose yourself completely. Some characters become part of your soul, making you laugh, cry, and inspire to see those places in real life, and some make you angry the way the characters are portray...