You're just like Belle!

The other day, I was walking to the bus stop on campus. Not unusually, I was reading a book as I walked. I was almost to the bus stop when I coworker called out to me. I looked up to find a coworker and a former coworker standing together, chatting. I walked over to them. My coworker laughingly joked that I was the typical English major, walking with my nose in a book. My former coworker grinned and exclaimed "You're just like Belle!" I just shrugged and smiled. What could I say? I am just like Belle from the Disney movie, The Beauty and the Beast.

I started reading in elementary school, which is where most start right? Ha ha. But by the time I was in the fifth grade I was reading at a high school level. I did constantly have my nose in a book. I remember the first time I ventured to the school library on my own. Each class had one day a week that they went to the library. I walked into the library on my own where the best librarian ever worked, Mrs. Asay.  She was so nice and she was very supportive of my exploration.

I was probably 12 or 13 when I started venturing to the city library on my own. My mom had a rule that we could only go to the public library during the summer so we didn't get our school books mixed up with the library books. It was summer when I walked into the old library. I walked out with a stack of probably five books. The most books I'd ever taken out at one time. That was the beginning of my Belle-ness.

I'm totally that girl who walks down the street a book in hand and most likely another one hiding in my bag. I'm a Belle. You know that second scene, after the backstory of the Beast has been told, when you see Belle walking into town to the bookshop? After she gets the book she starts to walk through town reading. The townspeople think she's odd. That's been me with my family. My tenacity when it comes to reading has always seemed to throw them off. But it's simply me.


I'm the bookworm. It's just the way it is.

Until Next Time,

The Hopeless Romantic