I like to read.
Sometimes I don’t have nearly enough time for it as I would like, but settling into a good book {especially on a fair-weather day} has always been on the top of my list of favorite things. When I was in third grade, a teacher told my mother that I would probably never achieve the required reading skills as my peers. In was almost laughable that I would ever surpass it. I was in the lowest group, barely reading the necessary pages for the day. And then I got to fourth grade and, thanks to one of my favorite teachers, Mr. Schmidke, and other parent volunteers, I started to chip away at easy books. Little by little, I made my way through tougher words and thicker pages. Slowly, I wasn’t sounding out syllables and stumbling through sentence structures, but simply reading. Second nature, like the back of my hand. By the time I arrived in fifth grade, I was in the excelled reading group and {to the never ending torment and aggravation of my classmates} asked for homework all the time. In eight grade I was in a gifted reading and writing program. I went to college {the first time} for journalism and technical editing.
King’s to you, Mrs. Third Grade ‘Teacher’.
As I was thinking about this past wedding season, I couldn’t help compare it to that feeling of finally being able to read that great book. The amount of learning and practice it takes to begin like it’s second nature. To see the words, to pick up the camera, and not even think about letters strewn together or the rapid twist of the knobs and dials. The knowledge is there. The anticipation of flipping open that cover, of preparing for that first wedding, and the time to begin is drawing near. Where will the characters take me? What will I learn? How will I see it come together? The joys, twists and character developments that each chapter and wedding brings. That one part where I’m on the edge of my seat, flipping through the pages, running like a crazy person, caught up in the story and seeing where it will go. And then…inevitably, the end. The finish of a good story. The cap on a great wedding season.
And this season, my friends, was a great one.
