This is for anyone who feels down or self-conscious because of what you like to do in your free time. Specifically those who love to read. It applies to other things in life generally too, don’t get me wrong but this is just what happened to me tonight and I felt like it’s a common thing.
Tonight at work someone asked me what my favorite thing to do is and for a brief second I thought about making something up but instead I told them that I love to read. Knowing what would happen I told them anyway. But they were polite and asked what I liked to read and I just answered quickly out of habit, no one ever really cares. (Unless they do. You know what I mean.) One of them said they liked to read to and so we had the weird conversation of trying to see if we had read anything in common. But when we couldn’t really find anything we just sort fell into a good conversation about just the act of reading and how it makes us feel. But I could tell that I was definitely more into the conversation than them so I started to reel myself back in. And then another person came in and asked if I had been talking about books again in an easy-going way. They weren’t rude but.. it was just... there was a tone ya know? So I dropped my pretty little face right back into my book. Conversation forgotten. The newcomer then commented on how I was just going to stop talking to them to be on my phone and I answered that I had thought the conversation was over for me? It seemed like they were moving on with a different subject. They said: but you were talking about reading where you not? I answered that I indeed had been, but I know that no one wants to sit here and listen to me talk about books so I usually just let the conversation die so I can go back to reading.
They literally didn’t even hear me. They had already started talking about whatever it had been they were talking about before.
The reason I even wanted to post this was because that situation used to make me feel bad. Like I was less interesting because no one around me liked what I liked. That because I’m a reader and I get super stoked to talk about my books or just reading in general that it made me a loser or something. But tonight when it happened all I thought as I watched them for a few minutes as they continued on without me was, I’m living a more exciting life than you can imagine. And I get to live it a thousand times with a thousand different people in worlds you couldn’t even fathom, I go on adventures and fight in battles on the backs of dragons (ruks, wyverns, etc). I fall in love all the time and my heart does get broken just to be mended again with magic of words wielded to their highest power. Is that not exciting?
So I let them continue their mundane conversation and I slipped right back into my current world, not even giving them a second thought really. Don’t let someone make you feel bad for doing something you love to do.
For me it’s reading. It’s always been reading. But whatever it is for you, keep doing it. But for my fellow readers who may have this similar situation happen sometimes; Reading is something to be excited about. And I don’t think, as readers we should ever feel otherwise.
