Christian Big Hair
Jon Kohn
College Writing
January 17, 2013
Reading in safe places When I think about all the places I have lived, they don’t have that special feel I have when I’m in St. Xavier. Whenever I go somewhere else, all I think about is going home, and I ask myself, “how much longer are we going to be here?” Except when I’m in Billings at the Barnes and Noble bookstore. I wish I could live in Barnes and Noble. I feel safe and comfortable when I read, in St. Xavier or at the bookstore. I love the country, which is so beautiful any season. In winter it’s quiet and we can hear cars miles away or the rumbling sound of the beet trucks. The crunching of my foot steps in the snow. The ground as bright as the sun I can’t bare to look at it without sunglasses. Summer is so much fun with barbecues everyday, fishing, swimming, and family all day everyday. Long nights with friends, movies every weekend, comfortable clothes, Ok-Ah-Beh everyday, tennis with friends in the afternoon and at night. The main event before school Crow Fair, hanging around the arbor, watching the dusty rodeo, catching up with old friends. In spring the rainfall is so calming, and rain is my favorite weather because I love the smell on the asphalt and dirt, and it feels like the rain is cleaning the earth, The feel of rain on my skin so refreshing, the fact that school is almost over catching summer fever, fall of course because my birthday is in fall, so kudos to fall. St. Xavier would have to be my spot for every season; it’s a gift to have every season in one state. I just love to sit outside and read, it’s so beautiful and awe aspiring to listen to nature while I’m reading a heroic tale, a mystery, drama, biography, auto- biography, or a book I have already read, such as the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Reading has always been a way for me to escape reality and judgment. The Barnes and Noble bookstore makes me feel at home. When I’m there, I feel safe, and I love to just see the variety of books the store has to offer, along with its amazing café and desserts, I love the cheesecake. I just love to help newcomers, especially in the kid section, because I love to talk about books to younger kids and let them know that books are amazing. I always remember a little boy who was with his parents looking for Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympian series. I helped him find it, and we started talking about how awesome the books were, and how the movie gave him the muse to read the series. When he read the book he noticed how the movie left out points from the book. One of the biggest things the movie left out for me was Annabel’s New York Yankee hat that makes the wearer invisible. I showed him the graphic novel that just came out for the first book in the Percy Jackson series, the Percy Jackson and Olympians Demigod Files, which is like an extended version of the original books because it has extra stories and adventures. The Barnes and Nobles bookstore is like a home away from home, I can read a book for free for an hour on my nook, a sanctuary for me to read in peace. We moved a lot when I was younger. We lived in trailers, houses, and dorms in Bismarck, North Dakota the dorms were built over an old military base camp. It was the most haunted place I’ve been to. I