What Does My Public Library Mean To Me?
by Brittany Robertini
age 16, Murfreesboro

As far back as I can remember the library has been like a second home to me.  Whenever somebody asked me where my favorite place to hangout was, my answer was always the library.  My favorite hobby was always reading.  People used to tell me that I needed to put my books down and go outside to get some sun.  My answer to this was to just take my book outside.  The library helped feed my love for books.  Here I could go wherever I wanted to, see whatever I wanted to, and be whoever I wanted to. 

Now imagine you are sitting in a library, not just anywhere in the library, but in the far back.  There is a chair there.  Do you see it? It is the one that has the ability to make you feel as though you are the only one for miles of that chair.  You have just chosen a book that is supposed to be filled with suspense, action, and a little bit science fiction.  You have never heard of the author, do not know whether or not you will even like his writing.  You start to get comfortable in your chair, you crack the spine of the book and begin reading.  You are immediately engrossed by the scenes that play themselves out before you.  It’s no longer a foreign, fictional character about whom you know nothing.  You become the hand that holds the sword that slays the dragon.  You become the feet that move on their own accord when dancing with the handsome prince.  You are the mind that; invented the cotton gin, introduced the astronomical phenomena, and lived the dream that all men are created equal.  You begin to digress away from your surroundings and move into a world only you can be inhabit.  You begin to see the things they see, feel the things they feel, and each time become somebody you never though you would be.

Opening a book, if only for a second, enables you to experience what it is like to have the ability to do anything, try everything, and become anyone.  At the library, there is no limit as to how many people you can be or  how many places you can go.  They help you explore every aspect of your imagination, and enable you to see possibilities you had never thought were there.  THIS is what my library means to me. 

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