Growing up I always loved reading and writing. I could spend  all day on my bed reading through books. As my parents recall I could read up to three books in a day. That was how much I loved reading. Like Mortan said “ an old book is like a time machine too… when we pick up a novel…we’re journeying into the novelist’s world and taking a look around”. I felt as though each book was its own world, as I emerged myself into these books I entered different worlds  filled with magic and drama. Through books you  could jump into any point in time and  you could be anything you wanted to be. I decided to write some stories of my own and enjoyed doing so. I never thought I would stop reading and writing  and much less because of a health problem.
I was 12 years old when I started having migraines. I was sitting on my bed one day when I felt a sharp pain on the right side of my head. I didn’t think much of it and continued reading. 5 minutes after that initial pain came a second shock wave this time more intense and now on the opposite side of the initial pain, more specifically I felt the pain  on the temples of my head. I immediately let go of the book and held my head in pain. My eyes were shut tight and I could feel the pain becoming more intense. I felt an intense throbbing as if my veins were about to pop. In a matter of a couple seconds the pain disappeared and all I felt were the tears on my cheeks. My mom rushed over and as I opened my eyes. Everything was out of focus. All I saw was a big blur and felt dizzy. My mom didn’t know what was wrong and I couldn’t really explain it either so  we brushed it off as a bad headache. That same day, it happened again except that this time it was in the middle of the night. I woke up from the same pain which had now escalated, and was crying from the pain. My parents were startled at my sudden sobbing and started to get worried that something else might be wrong, and that it wasn’t just a bad headache. We decided to go for a checkup and after some tests they found that what I was experiencing were migraines. They said that I caused the migraines because I was reading excessively. I  was straining my eyesight and somehow triggering the nerves causing the migraines. This kind of worried the doctors because the level of intensity I had was not common in 12 year olds, and the medication needed to treat the migraines was for adults and very potent. After  that visit  everything changed. I was put on a strict diet, with no dairy or caffeine and had to lay in bed in a pitch black room for 2 hours a day because light was harmful to my eyes. I often felt dizzy before I was about to feel pain and would have to take medication immediately before the pain increased. Even though reading was the cause of the pain I didn’t want to stop.
Unlike Anne Lamott who had her parents encouraging her to read and write, my parents wanted me to forget about reading for a while. I wasn’t allowed to even think about reading. They went to the extent of taking all the books from my room and moving them to their closet until my migraines were treated. At first I was upset because I loved reading and didn’t want to do anything else besides that, but I understood that it was for my benefit. I went on with the treatment for about 1 year until the migraines stopped. I don’t remember when but I know that a year into the treatment the migraines started to go away and after that one year months past and I never got a migraine again. Even though the pain had stopped I was still affected by it.
During that period of not being able to read, that interest slowly vanished. I found that I no longer had that same desire and eagerness to open up a book. I no longer saw reading as something that I enjoyed. I felt like this because somewhere in the back of my mind I was afraid of going through that experience again. I knew that if I opened up a book again I wouldn’t want to  put it down . Even though I had been cleared by the doctors I still wasn’t allowed to read for more than an hours day. Because of this I decided not to read at all. I didn’t like the feeling of being restricted and not being able to freely enjoy reading without worrying about the pain coming back. As months went by I lost all interest in reading. I wanted nothing to do with it. This went on for about 2 years.
It wasn’t until high school that I started to get into reading again. It had been years since my last migraine so I figured that it would be fine. While I did start reading again, it didn’t feel the same. I couldn’t read as long as before. I got tired easily and lost interest quickly. I would read a couple chapters of a book and decide that it was boring and put it down never to open it again. I wanted to enjoy reading like I did when I was a child so I picked up those books and finished reading them. I found that not all books will grab your attention right away. Some take time and a couple of more chapters to really immerse you into their world. It took me a few months but I regained that joy. My interest in books had drastically changed. Instead of those fantasy princess books, I now enjoyed horror  and supernatural fiction books like Pet Cemetery  by Stephan king. During this period I discovered one of my favorite authors to this day, Edgar Allen Poe. His writing is what really helped get that enjoyment back. I was  inspired by his work and wanted  to try  writing some of my own short stories again but stopped shortly after. Writing short stories is a lot harder then it seems.
Through this experience I learned that too much of something can be bad. I went through an emotional roller coaster enjoying reading, then hating it then loving it again. I learned to value the little things and am happy that this wasn’t a serious issue. I am still able to read and write to my hearts content and plan to do so for a very long time. I also see that my perception on reading and writing has also changed. Reading doesn’t have to be forced and not everyone will enjoy it. Books are worlds that you enter to escape that reality that you are in. They can also be time machines to take you back to a time where the world you are living in was different. For me reading is therapeutic and it has a certain feeling that I don’t really get from anything else.