Guest Blog: Identity

There is a line in the movie “You Got Mail” where Meg Ryan says, “When you read a book as a child, it becomes a part of your identity in a way that no other reading in your whole life does.” I can’t help nodding my head in agreement every time I hear it- because it’s so true!

When I look back at the books I read as a child I have to laugh because the ones that I checked out most were the ones I most identified with as far as my perception of things went.

The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner is a book I remember checking out of the Summit Valley Elementary School library the most – and that was before they made a series out of it!

Abandoned by the death of their parents, these four kids set up a home in an old abandoned boxcar until their grandfather finally located them and gave them a real home. No, I was never abandoned physically by my parents- but, as the middle child often does, I often felt abandoned by them emotionally, though through no fault of their own.

I was always a different child compared to my sister and brother. My older Sister did everything to perfection needing my parents’ approval to find her place in the family. My younger brother always- and still does- had a wonderful sense of humor that got him attention all around. Being more introverted back then, this left me feeling as if there was no particular stand out aspect of my personality to grab my parent’s attention. I often felt like I was crying out, “See look at me! I Can do it too!” without being heard or that I was standing outside the house watching everything go on inside without being seen. When I told my mother this later she adamantly denied them treating me in any way different, but yet, right or wrong, it was how I felt. It was my perception of my family life and so when I picked up a book about outsiders or those lost in the midst of their family situations, I identified with them.

Because I often felt the outsider in my own home, I turned to books more and more for at least there I could find people who understood me. And as my reading expanded, I discovered that not only did these characters understand me, as I understood them, but they took me along on adventures with them!

I solved mysteries with Trixie Belden and the Bobwhites, I helped slaves escape along the Underground Railroad with Harriet Tubman, I rode a magic carpet with Aladdin, I got revenge on Nellie Olsen with Laura Ingalls, and gained courage to honestly talk about what was going on in my body because of the girls in Judy Blume’s books.

As I got older I discovered a few things. All these character I journeyed with as a child were a part of me! Like Harriet Tubman, I still hate to see people in bondage- whether to drugs or the ignorance of other people- and long to see they are set free from the things that hold them back. I want to be a pioneer like the Ingalls’- to go some where little have gone before. And a part of me still believes one day I can ride a magic carpet and defeat the forty thieves, if indeed I truly do have the valor of Aladdin.

Yep, they’re all a part of me now, just as I know they will be a part of generations to come. That’s why I don’t mind reading my four year old nephew’s favorite book, The Adventures of Spiderman, over and over to him, or when I have to take time out so that my niece can read to me from her Little House books. No I don’t mind at all because maybe some day he will be a man who wants to help those who are being overrun by evil and she will want to go where no woman has gone before. I get excited because, “When you read a book as a child, it becomes a part of your identity in a way that no other reading in your whole life does.”

How about you? What storybooks from your childhood influenced you? How did they become a part of you to make you who you’ve become?

Zeek
The Way I See It

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