The Book That Changed Me
By Mike Scher, Advisory Board Member
As a kid, I didn’t read much. I was too antsy. The time that I did spend reading, all I did was daydream about various kinds of athletic activities that I would play later in the day. At the time, video games offered the imaginative experience I was looking for without the work. While pretending to read, I would go off and play Madden ‘07 any chance I could get.
This pre-reading phase of my life also happened to coincide with some of the worst writing a human has ever allowed to grace the page. Nothing made sense in my head; my vocabulary was atrocious. My parents, even now cannot believe how pathetic the content was that I was producing. They laugh about it now, but I promise humor was absent back then. The jest they get from it now only stems from the knowledge that improvement has been made. This development occurred by putting down the video game controllers and picking up a book.
All it took was one book for me to start to grasp the transformative impact that reading can have on someone’s life. The book was called Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. It was assigned by my teacher, Mr. Turner, in a freshman year history class. The novel includes a man finding a newspaper advertisement that says, "Teacher seeks pupil. Must have an earnest desire to save the world. Apply in person," and that teacher being a telepathic gorilla, changed my life forever. The book, in combination with a teacher who knew how to inspire, taught me to think critically about the world and my place in it.
Though my critical thinking skills started to form that year, it was not until the summer before I entered college that I decided to set concrete reading goals. I made a choice to read about 10 to 12 books a year at least. My godmother, an English major herself, introduced me to Herman Hesse, John Fowles and James Baldwin. We would read them together and discuss the beauty within the words. Words which could teach you empathy and compassion. Words that evoked tears. Words that helped you articulate your own thoughts and feelings on a deeper level.
This flowed well into classes in college which always left me humbled. Often I left the class feeling less intelligent than when I started, but I always left fascinated. Descartes and Socrates seemed to be able to take something that I had always known in life, but could never fully comprehend, and put it as simply as, “do-re-mi.” Everything I read, both in and out of class, challenged me. It challenged the way I read, wrote, and thought. Not only did every book that I read make me a better student, it made me a better person.
Since college, reading has allowed me to be a perpetual student, and I am constantly challenging others to do the same. When I read someone’s writing who could use a little work, I tell them, “read.” Read anything that they can get their hands on. I have given out more copies of Ishmael than I can count in the hope that it will have a similar experience for others as it did for me.
These experiences and my passion for reading drives my commitment to seeing The Literate Earth Project’s mission come to life. I know the power that one book can have. One book can open up doors that you never thought could be opened. One book can teach you about the world around you and more importantly yourself. I can only hope that our mission will help many children in Uganda find their Ishamel much sooner than I did.
About Us
The Literate Earth Project has made significant progress on our path toward improving literacy within Uganda. Thanks to the hard work from teachers and schools, we can help every child learn, grow, and thrive. We are also excited to announce we are set to open our 17th library in the fall/winter of 2020.
That said, we still have so much further still to go in making an impact on the lives of Ugandan children. Join us on our mission to create lasting change- please reach out to get involved or donate today!