Reading Changed My Life - Townsend Press

Reading Changed My Life! Three True Storiessimply ignored anyone who suggested she shouldnot care about her schooling. And drink and drugsdid not attract her at all. “In their way, my parentstaught me a great lesson,” she says. “You know howmost kids at least try cigarettes? Not me. I havenever smoked even one cigarette. Never tastedalcohol. Never used an ounce of marijuana. Ilooked at my parents’ example and thought, ‘That’swhat I’d become.’ ”But Julia had her own kind of weakness. Herparents had never been ones to show affection.“They never said, ‘I love you.’ They never huggedor kissed us. To them, putting a roof over our headsand food on the table was love. But I wanted someoneto tell me.” When Julia was 17, a boy camealong. He told Julia, “I love you.” She soon foundherself pregnant with her first child.“I confused sex with love,” Julia says today.“And eventually, I was raising four kids on myown.”66