Magic in Books by Cheyenne

Magic in Books by Cheyenne - June 2017 Scholarship Essay

My grandparents took me to the library every week when I was a child. I was in complete awe of the stacks and stacks of books that were before me, all the stories that were contained between the bindings seemed to be innumerable. The monsters and heroes and witches and fairies and maidens and elves! I wanted to read everything in the library. I wanted to envelope myself into imagination, become part of their world completely. I would check out as many books as the librarians would allow me to and come back the next week already thirsting for more adventures. I felt at home between the rows of books, every one calling out to me to be read next. With big, curious eyes I would take my next journey off the shelf and rush to the check out desk. By the time my grandparents got me back into their car to go home, I was already pages into my voyage.
I didn’t give much thought to what I wanted to be when I was six. If anyone had asked me, I probably said something like a princess. But books have always been my best friends. They allowed me to transcend the world, develop a big imagination, and to learn about anything I wanted. I had anything I wanted at my fingertips, and the library was the place I felt the most at home.
As I got older, I assumed I would become an English teacher. Although I do love English teachers and have the utmost respect for them, the thought didn’t excite me. It seemed like the only path I had if I wanted to go to college for English. I accepted that idea while I was in high school and as I filled out my applications for colleges my senior year, I would select English Education from the drop down list of majors online. It wasn’t thrilling but it was something, and at least I would still have time for my books and trips to the library.
I decided to take time and go to community college to start off my academic career to save money and get my core classes out of the way. I fell in love with my English literature classes and would write my papers and read my assigned books in my college’s library. The more and more I thought about becoming a teacher, the more and more distraught I felt about continuing college. I wanted to make a difference in people’s lives, but I also wanted to help others feel the magic that I felt when I started looking through the books that lived inside the library.
I started looking into becoming a librarian. I didn’t realize that to become a librarian you need to obtain a masters degree! I didn’t even think there was a major called Library Science! I was so excited that I finally had found something that I could feel passionate about. I wanted to continue to learn and grow, but I also wanted to work towards something that I felt was going to make an impact on not just myself, but others. The more I looked into it, the more I was inclined to become a children’s librarian. I wanted to give other children like me the same books I had read and fell in love with. I wanted to encourage them to delve into books and become lost in words. All children deserve the same adventures that I had had. I wanted to preserve that enchantment I felt in the library, and pass it along to others.
I’m ecstatic that I get to go to school to learn exactly how to give children these explorations through books. Even if I only get to give one child the same kind of experience in the library that I had as a six-year-old, it will be well worth it. Nothing in this world can compare to the feeling of magic that comes from a book.