PAGBASA: PAG-ASA SA MATATAG NA KINABUKASAN

By: Justtt
Reading actuates your fantasies. People of all ages have certain
fantasies that bring them joy and ecstasy when they daydream about
them. It is something that somehow keeps us going despite the so-
called life that is so brutal, heart-wrenching, and traumatic. No
matter how hard or hurtful life gets, it keeps us on our toes and
keeps us walking down a certain path. It low-key motivates us.
I, like any other human being who had been through so much trauma that
led to a lot of insecurities, longings, personality issues, and
identity crises, loved to daydream and fantasize about what life I
wanted and what I’d love to have and be.
However, these fantasies are so farfetched that anyone with sane minds
and absolutely gorgeous personalities could even give them a place in
their ideals.
Not to me though. I am someone with fantasies far brighter and more
colorful than those of the sun and rainbow. It glitters more than gold
or diamonds.
It basically became a splash of color in my monochromatic life. These
fantasies somehow kept me going; they kindled that tiny flame of hope
and longing in my heart that helped me strive bit by bit.
Then I discovered reading. I started with myths. The first book I got
invested in during my teenage years was Rick Riordan’s “The Lightning
Thief”. Reading it somehow triggered my fantasies of living a magical
life. A teen has superpowers. How great was that?
It astounded me how limitless my fantasies can be actuated with my
imaginations in reading those books. I practically discovered a world
I could blend myself into. There, I discovered a lot of possibilities.
Even the possibility of actuating some of my fantasies in the real
world.
Through reading, I learned to develop myself like how my favorite book
characters developed themselves. I learned to amplify my potentials
and turn them into my power, like how Percy Jackson slowly developed
his demi-god power.
Then came my young adult years. I am not anymore invested in
mythologies that much, but I discovered crime and thriller genres. It
again brought my NBI slash FBI fantasies into reality while reading
numerous books by Sidney Sheldon and the like. With this, I was able
to discover my passion for investigative journalism, which I then
pursued as my course in college.
After which was my obsession with romance novels and Wattpad stories,
which made me abhor scarlet letters but taught me that the greatest of
luxuries are our secrets. It made me giddy, and I felt how it was to
be wonderstruck and dancing all alone, being enchanted to meet your
person. Books that made me pray every epilogue that it was not where
the story line ends. Gosh, the blushes I’d get reading them still
resonate deep in my core memory.
Finally, in my adulting phase, as an adult who finds life to be a
conundrum that can’t be solved, I got riveted on exploring self-help
books that handled my catastrophic blues when I was too hollow to
handle it. It helped me make some sense of why certain wounds are
still bleeding.
Truly, reading is the hope of a firm and vibrant future, as it helps
readers discover themselves and helps them bridge their fantasies to
reality.#