Early Memorable Experience with Writing and Reading

"You cannot open a book without learning something" (Confucius). About two months before school started, the weather became extremely hot. I stayed at home to enjoy the air-conditioning and to do some reading. I grabbed an arbitrary book which had probably sat on my shelf during the whole summer. On the cover, it read "Voices and Values: A Reader for Writers by Janet M.Goldstein and Beth Johnson". On the inside, a few carelessly folded pages indicated that the book had ever been used. This book, a collection of effective essays, was a requirement for one of my classes. It theoretically served as a key to succeed both in reading and writing, but I had only read ten essays in an attempt to finish my homework assignments enough to maintain a fair grade in the course. That was how I approached school, getting the highest possible grade with the lowest possible effort. However, after reading several more essays in "Voices and Values", my attitude toward studying changed.
In my family, education plays a serious role. My parents taught me to study hard. Nevertheless, I personally viewed these ideas childishly and impractically. I told myself that it would be a waste of time to try too hard and fully absorb any of the material I was studying. What I did was to study enough to gather the facts. I used to taste ideas, chew on them for as long as it took to survive in class, and then, after tests, spit them out. Grades, after all, had served as the most powerful element in my educational view. As a matter of fact, while my grades were thriving, my mind was stagnating.
As I opened the book that day, looking for some interesting essays that I might have missed, I found more than that. This book is much more than an academic book designed to teach critical reading and writing skills. "Voices and Values", in some ways, introduces its readers to higher moral lessons. The essays, "Dare to Think Big" by Dr. Ben Carson, "From Nonreading to Reading" by Stacy Kelly Abbott, "Reading