The Benefits of reading By: Conrad Paintin

Reading may seem like a good way to work-out your brain and build cognitive strength, though the benefits are not exclusive to the mind. The physical benefits of reading are just as apparent. According to Piedmont Hospital reading can lower stress which boosts your immune system. However, there are more benefits that are more related to the mind and mental state. 

Putting yourself in the position of the protagonist of the book your reading gives you understanding as to what they are going through. Doing this habitually and putting yourself in the position of others builds empathy. Ryan Nix, a senior at Hillgrove high school, “Um, probably most of the time it's the emotions of whatever the author is trying to portray.” Feeling the emotions, the author is trying to portray builds the ability of empathy and putting on the shoes of others and walking in them. “I can see what they're thinking in their head and it helps me, like just however they're feeling. I do feel really relaxed, even at an extreme moment in a book, because it's a lot easier to deal with feelings that aren’t my own.,” says Allan Nix, a tenth-grade student at Hillgrove high school. This idea of escaping allows you to feel peace as well as start to learn your own feelings and build off of those feelings.

By finding characters you relate to you can better understand current problems you are going through and better understand how to react and work though what you are going through based off of how the character reacted and processed their situation. Allan Nix, an honor student at Hillgrove high school says, “Um, probably the main character from Hell Followed with Us whose name was Benji, um because it kind of it writes about his struggles, um, coming out to a religious family and finding a safe space full of other people like him.” Books can discuss serious topics that can deeply affect people, especially in sensitive aspects of their lives. “Probably Aaron Stowe. Um, because he's sort of misunderstood and, um let's see, he doesn't understand his own creativity.,” Ryan Nix says, a twelfth-grade student at Hillgrove high school, Reading can even help you connect with parts of yourself even if you are not remarkably familiar with it.