On rereading
Rereading is a peculiar kind of time travel. A book never changes, and yet it is never the same twice. The words are identical, the sentences in their places, but the person holding the book is different.
When I return to a story I loved years ago, I meet two versions of myself at once: the reader I was then, and the reader I am now. Sometimes, the book feels smaller, sometimes larger. Sometimes it breaks my heart in new ways, or heals me in places I didn’t know were wounded.
This is why I believe rereading is an act of self-discovery. We don’t go back to relive the same experience; we go back to see how much we’ve changed. Books become mirrors, reflecting not only the story, but the distance we’ve traveled.
And so I return, again and again, to certain books and fanfics. They are companions that grow with me, offering new wisdom each time I open their pages. And every rereading is proof that no story ever truly ends.
