Reading Fears

Recently I watched "In Her Shoes". There's a part in the story line when Maggie (Cameron Diaz) is asked by a patient to read some poetry. She considered herself to be a slow reader and was embarrassed to read aloud. After some convincing, she began. This brought back vivid memories from elementary school We would all take turns reading aloud to the class. The teacher would have us move to the next person after every paragraph. I distinctly remember counting the person to paragraph ratio and praying my paragraph was small. I've never really liked speaking in front of people, but especially reading. I too was a slow reader.

When Grant came along I was worried about reading books to him. I was afraid of what he might think. Granted, when we started to read to him, he was just a baby. But none the less, it was a real fear. Reading books quickly became one of his favorite things to do (expect when he was put on book restriction for chewing the pages). I realized then that he didn't care what I sounded like. He only liked hanging out with Aunt Mer! Actually, the more I read to him, the more comfortable I became reading out loud. Without his knowledge, he helped me get over that fear. I tell you what, this year has been all about conquering fears.