For a Writing Contest

"Reading is to the mind,
As exercise is to the body."

Humans are a special breed; our level of intelligence is unparalleled throughout all of nature. However, just because we are intelligent does not mean we do not enjoy having fun. When I play with my dog, it is always a play fight. Essentially, Jack is practicing and honing his skills, which he would use in the wild to survive. By his playing being pretending to hunt when he is young, Jack would have a better chance at survival since he practices his skill of survival regularly. I believe that our survival skill is reading. By opening and reading into a book, we are flexing our intellectual muscle, our own brains. All people know that like any other muscle, when flexed and worked out, the brain's ability simply increases.
What does it mean for someone's cognitive ability to increase? Well it pretty much pertains to anything that you're brain is required for. It greatly aids in the ability to effectively store and retrieve memory, which we store away inside our skulls. Someone who is well read is most certainly to have a large vocabulary, and chances are higher marks in their classes then most non-reading students. This is proof enough that reading is the equivalent of a mental workout.
What does it mean to read something? It is possible to look at an entire page of words, recognize every word and think you've read the page. But think back, do you remember what you just "read"? It happens to everyone, they're in the middle of a book and their brain wanders. All of a sudden they are three pages ahead of where they last remember. Even though we visually recognized the words and sentences, the page was never read. In order for someone to read something they must envelope themselves in the book, allowing the content to take over, becoming awash in the subject. Someone who is used to reading into things knows how to properly analyze most situations or people.
A good example would be perhaps reading someone's body language. It is one thing to see a person and note how they have positioned themselves. However it is a completely different and far more intelligent thing to notice the way someone has positioned themselves and consider these questions: Why? What? Where? When? How? This is an example of critical thinking - a skill that is directly acquired from reading properly.
That is what I would consider reading into something, and I hope it is what most people do when they are reading book, because it is what I do and I believe I am all the better for it.
Our brain is what makes us superior. Life has changed from survival of the fittest, to survival of the smartest. Why not flex that muscle of superiority, and perhaps try to accomplish something. I assure you, accomplishments will come much quicker and easier to those who have their brains behind it - those who often find their noses in front of a page.




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