When I was in highschool, one of my last two years, I took a Freshman English course (in which I met one of my best and dearest friends). Ms. Alison Haupert was my instructor, and from the very beginning she required us to underline, write in the margins, and jot down our thoughts in between the lines of our books. I remember the first time I put pen to printed page; I felt as if I was ripping a piece of my heart out. I love reading, and so books were and are extremely dear to me. Writing in them...just felt wrong! But I followed the assignment, and before I knew it, I found that I began to understand and retain what I was reading far more than I ever had before. I could articulate my thoughts and feelings about the literature on a deep level, and when I reread the books (yes...even in fiction books), I could see my old thoughts, expand on them, correct them, and look back on my old immature ways of thinking and smile. Writing in books has become a way of life for me, and I love it!
Just the other day I began rereading The Small Bachelor by P.G. Wodehouse, a book that I performed in highschool as a humorous duo with a great friend. Now, in my senior year of college, I write in every book I own, but this book gave me pause. I started reading and, at first, I didn't want to write my thoughts in the lines. There is so much memory and emotional stock in this book! How could I write in it? At that moment, I was pulled into a paradoxical conflict. On the one hand, I felt affronted by the thought of "defacing" such a dear book...but on the other, I felt as if I was telling the book "I don't respect you enough to share my thoughts and feelings with you. I don't want to invest in you so that when I look back later, I'll see my influence on you."
Well of course...that got me thinking. Read my latest Scarlequain and an old quote I have to see what I mean.
Letters, Words,
Sentences heard,
Invest time,
Notes in the lines:
People books.
"There are two people you’ll meet in your life. One will run a
finger down the index of who you are and jump straight to the parts of you that
peak their interest. The other will take his or her time reading through every
one of your chapters and maybe fold corners of you that inspired them most. You
will meet these two people; it is a given. It is the third that you’ll never
see coming. That one person who not only finishes your sentences, but keeps the
book."
-Anonymous
The quote doesn't exactly cover what I'm talking about, but I think you get the connection. To some degree, people are like walking, talking, feeling, emoting books. We are a treasure trove of information that is begging to be interacted with, loved, and remembered. And just as with books, if you actually invest your thoughts and feelings and time, if you underline the interesting areas, take note of them, and if you come back to those things later and see how you have grown with those things, your understanding and your relationship with that person will be just as deep and as meaningful as your deepening understanding of your literature.
Many of us are just going back to school after a long summer break. Books and people surround us and saturate our daily life. So here's something to think about. Want to do better on tests and understand your work more? Pull out a pen. Do you want to understand and relate to those people around you to whom you never could? Invest some time. Pull out a "pen" and start taking note. The world not only needs better students. The world needs understanding people.
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