Three, Two, One...

Last week, I talked with some girls about the importance of reading to children. Today, I returned and helped record them on DVD reading aloud a book they'd selected for a young person in their life. We set up the cameras is a small, unused inmate room, the walls of which were cinder blocks painted light cream. It looked exactly like my dorm room with a smaller window. When I realized the similarity, for a second I wanted to also draw other parallels, perhaps in simile form. Freshman year had been tough for me. But then I pulled myself out of my melodramatic funk and realized this small room wasn't some self-imposed prison. It was, literally, a prison.

The girls all did wonderfully. Some were nervous, asking me if their hair looked okay. One had a book with lots of silly words and for a minute she was stressing out, saying, "I don't know these words!" I assured her the kid didn't know them, either. And if she mispronounced something, who cares? From Rolling Readers, I've found that any mistake can be covered up with some personality and a funny voice. Which applies for oh-so-many other things in life.