When Barak Obama announced his annual summer reading picks for 2018, I felt a little proud. I had actually already read several of them! But one book I hadn’t yet read was Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover. It had been on my to-read list since it came out, and his recommendation instantly catapulted to the top. When my Audible credit for the month arrived, I exchanged it for the book. Now I walk nightly to Westover’s words. She worked hard to learn them, and revels in using them. I picture her writing down certain phrases that she feels so perfectly capture her experiences and pocketing them, like treasures. Sometimes I find this a bit tiresome, and sometimes I melt into them. And, sometimes, I am prompted to write down them too.
The skill I was learning was a crucial one, the patience to read things I could not yet understand.
Tara Westover, Educated