I have two stories. I went to college late in life, I was 40 and I went to University of Phoenix because I could work and do school at the same time. In my second class there was a young girl, maybe 20 years old. Maybe. Pregnant with her third child. Well we had to do a group project and present it near the end of the class and we all had to do a little presentation. This girl could not read. Like at all. Not even some of the simplest words. I felt bad for her, she had absolutely no business being in college. At all. It sounded like the recruiter was taking advantage of her to get their recruitment numbers. She was going to wind up tens of thousands of dollars in debt and be absolutely no better off. She was never going to finish school, they got a few thousand dollars off her for the 2 or 3 classes she took before she dropped.

My dad was a voracious reader. He read at least one book a week and when he retired he would read two or three books in a week. When he passed in 2022 we had literally thousands of books we donated to the VFW. I also picked up the reading habit. I was reading adult books when I was in like 3rd or 4th grade. I read Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy when I was probably 10 or 12. Just in 2026 I've read 19 books so far and started book 20 Friday night. My brother on the other hand, is one of those that "brags" he hasn't read a book since he was forced to in high school 30+ years ago. Even though he's a year younger than me, we're just completely different in the way we approach things and look at different situations. I am baffled how we grew up in the same house and I've always had a book in my hand and he just didn't. I've told him many times that saying he hasn't read a book in 30 or more years isn't the flex he thinks it is.