Learning to Read

I enjoy reading. My parents read to me often and there were always plenty of books, magazines, newspapers and candy wrappers for me to read. Okay, the wrappers were mine, but the point is I love to read. I learned to read by looking at pictures first. You remember, See Jane Run, and there she was in the picture, running. Piece of cake. Then there were more complex readings such as Peanuts, Nancy Drew, Garfield and other highly intellectual volumes. It opened the world up to anyone who turned the page. Of course, recognizing reality versus fiction can be a challenge for many.
Some people I know well read Star or the Enquirer and take it as gospel, even if they know in their mind that people can not grow fins. There was a picture:) That is probably the result of those Dick and Jane books, kind of like Pavlovs dog.
Reading encouraged me to be creative, dream, challenge and question. So starting at an early age I questioned things like, why my snack is artificially flavored instead of real or why the risks to take the medications for my medical condition are significantly more terrible then the risk of the condition.
And now the world is available with a simple click of the mouse. I can look up anything, anywhere, anytime. Cool. Of course I heard a joke once that was relavent when playing around with my cyber library. It talked about the link for the 1st search hit and the last. Completely different, completely unrelated and yet all 1,987,000 came up with the word search "gonorrhea". Just try it. Enter a search for say "vaccines". 12,000,000 hits. Who has time to review all 12 million to evaluate whether or not to give their kid a vaccine or to take the flu shot or if they even come from a reliable source. And by the time you get to the last hit it will likely have nothing to do with vaccines or immunizations or world peace at all. The world knowledge bank is dangerous to say the least.
I continued my reading quest throughout my school years, searching for things that interested me. It always came back to adventures in far away places, reading and medicine. I love medicine. It may be related to my frequent visits to doctors, hospitals, emergency rooms, etc, etc from an early age of 2. I decided early on that my job in life would be to take care of everyone else. But first I had to take the next 12 years to get a grasp on a few concepts like English, writing, math, science, band and volleyball. Yes they were all equally important. These would take me years to master, or quit and truthfully I am still not quite proficient at English. Thank God for spell check and tools to upgrade your work to at least a sixth grade level (I don't think that tool is available here). But the beauty is that no matter what or how I learned in the early years I am still learning now. I still read Garfield and I still love adventure and the truth is I still love taking care of everyone else. I am still learning about the me that is yet to be. Think I will sit back and read a good book.