Please pick up a book

I always thought that my last article would be written during my senior year at Union, but the best-laid plans of mice and men go awry, I guess. Anyways, I’m not the only one saying goodbye this year. A very talented group of seniors are departing. Among them is Juliet, our head editor, and Kelina, my section editor. Best wishes to both of them; thank you for all of your hard work this semester. The Clocktower staff will miss you. 

Now, to close this academic year off, I decided to argue why everyone should read. I know many students have grown to detest reading after slogging through their nursing textbooks or assigned reading for literature classes. Although I too can relate to the textbook burnout, reading should still be important to you. Here are some reasons to read (knowing that most people probably won't take the time to read this, I will keep my list brief):

1 . Do you have anything better to do?

Seriously though, what better do you have to do with your life? Binge another poorly written T.V. show? Scroll Instagram envying other people’s glamorous lifestyles? Watch YouTube videos about the slap heard around the world? Picking up a book for a change wouldn’t kill you. You might even find it more entertaining.

2. Get smarter

Reading makes you smarter in a variety of ways. It takes focus that simply isn’t required from social media, movies or YouTube. It doesn’t offer cheap immediate gratification, instead, it pays off more in the end. You could learn more facts about the world you inhabit. We live in an age when knowledge is more readily available to the average person than ever before. You might as well take advantage of that. Personally, though, I find the most valuable payoff to be an increase in emotional intelligence. I’ll explain more in my next point.

3. Interact with great minds across time

Reading is time travel. Okay, so that’s a stretch, but from reading you can imagine different time periods, settings, events and various people’s thoughts. You can experience deeper empathy with others from reading. I’ve found the saying, “A reader lives a thousand lives” holds true. 

As this is my last article for The Clocktower, I would like to thank some of the people who taught me lessons that I will remember far beyond my college days. Thank you to Mike Mennard, Dr. Holdsworth, Peggy Shlegel, Terri and Dennis Lair and Lori Brasuell. Lastly, some words of advice (other than to read more): go outside when the weather is nice, be spontaneous, question practices, people and paradigms, stop caring about what others think and walk with God. With that, goodbye and good luck to all of you, whether you are graduating or sticking around.

By Sierra Lastine