I remember vividly the first time I was able to read a word. I don't think I had started school yet but my older sisters had been teaching me the alphabet. I was standing on the hump in the back seat of the car looking over the front bench seat to the road ahead. I don't remember where my family was going, but it was a dark night and Dad was driving through the countryside. The headlights lit up a stop sign at an upcoming intersection. I knew the sign was a stop sign but I didn't know that the letters on the sign actually spelled out the word "stop" until that night. I was watching the sign get closer and closer when all of a sudden it clicked in my head that the letters on the sign spelled the word "stop." I've been in love with reading ever since.
Martha Vogel, Apple Valley
