Being a younger sibling means that you’re in their shadow. Between the shared hobbies, clothes, and everything in between, my sister and I were basically the same person. As a young teen i felt like I had nothing for myself, I was just a copy of my sister. We read the same books, which was basically none, watched the same shows, and had the same personality, I blended in too well.

Then in school we read The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan and my life changed forever. I read those books because it provided me with a distinction from everyone else: I loved to read. None of my friends or family really were like me and it finally felt like I found the part of myself that I did not know was there.

Blending in sucks. It feels like you don’t belong anywhere and books distinguished the part of me that makes me, me.

The amount of times I’ve relied on books is insane. From reading The Darkest Minds in the middle of panic attacks because it’s the only thing that calms me down, relating to Tessa so hard in Clockwork Princess because I lost someone too while reading that novel, meeting my favorite authors, and crying nonstop from books, happy or sad, they give me the emotions I would never experience without them. Books give me life and friends when nobody or nothing else can.

Words do change us, into the real us. When we think about our lives if we did not have books, I think I can vouch for many when I say that we would be unrecognizable.

I would not be me and that’s the whole point of books.

They bring out the you that nothing else can, because words are the most powerful weapon.