The Book That Changed My Life by Megan

The Book That Changed My Life by Megan - May 2017 Scholarship Essay

The book that best influenced my life was a book that I was given when I was in fifth grade. At that age, I liked reading everything that I could get my hands on. I read Nancy Drew and Harry Potter and Percy Jackson and all the other children’s books. However, my grandmother gave me a book that she told me was for adults. She gave me an autographed copy of To Kill A Mockingbird.
The first time I read the book, I thought it was a fun and funny book. I was about Scout’s age. I loved the chronicle of Boo Radley and the mystery of the pennies in the tree. I understood why Jem got bad at Ms. Dubose and didn’t understand why Atticus made him read to her. I got confused as to what the trial was and really didn’t understand what was happening, so I stopped before Atticus got to talk to Bob Ewell.
The second time that I read that book, I was a few years older, about Jem’s age. Suddenly, the trial seemed far more interesting to me than it did the first time. I was able to follow the way that it affected Scout and Jem, and I was able to understand what actually happened. I really identified with Jem, and like Jem, I completely believed that Tom Robinson was going to be found not guilty. I got really angry when he was not. That book was really the first book to affect my mood. I stayed angry for nearly a week.
That book was the first time I realized what inequality was, and almost immediately, I started changing my life to try to fix that inequality.
Currently, I am getting ready for my final year of university in order to obtain my bachelor’s degree for social work. My goal is to try to work in the justice system to try to reform incarcerated populations. A lot of people in person are people who feel that they do not have any option besides crime, and frequently, that is the case. I believe that our society would be better served by offering productive opportunities for people to sustain themselves as opposed to simply imprisoning them. I hope to work in the government in order to create policies that would focus on offering more opportunities to disenfranchised populations and supporting small, locally-owned businesses.
I can still remember reading the trial scene where Atticus Finch spoke so powerfully about justice. At thirteen years old, I decided that I wanted to one day be Atticus Finch. Since I was thirteen, I have read the book every two or three years, and my perspective has changed almost every time because I have changed. I no longer want to be Atticus Finch. I am content to be far less dramatic, as long as I am changing things for the better. I have truly grown up with that book, and it has shaped the way that I view the world. I look forward to reading it again as I get older and seeing how I continue to change with it.