Addicted to Reading

So, you've found out when I started learning English. Now, let's move forward with the story.

At a very young age, I was very competitive. I wanted to be part of the class' top 10 students. But unfortunately, I was 11th when I was in Grade 1 & 2. Upon finding out, I cried buckets of tears. Haha.. I could just laugh at it now. But I was really that intense about it.

So, I've decided to do well in Grade 3. Perhaps then, I discovered that I had an aptitude in English. I enjoyed memorizing and reciting poems, as well as performing. It also helped that my aunt gave me a book as a gift. It was Michael Jordan's biography. I thought it was very interesting and I discovered the joy of reading - in English.

That started my quest for good English books or novels. I started rummaging through my grandma's bookshelves (I think she has the largest collection of books and magazines in the family) and picked up novels that seemed interesting. There, I found 'Apple Tree Lean Down' by Mary E. Pearce. If I'm not mistaken it had 698 pages. At that time, I thought it was quite I challenged but I was encouraged when my grandma said she enjoyed reading it very much.

So off to reading I went. The book brought me back to England a few decades ago. After just a first few pages, I was enchanted. At that time, it was rainy season and there came a major storm. So we had no classes. The flood reached our home, so we had to stay in the second floor. I would remain cuddled up, reading the book. I even forgot about lunch time.

I couldn't understand a lot of words so I kept on looking them up on the dictionary. It would irritate me that I still had to look up words I already looked up before. So I tried hard to remember them. I guess that was effective!