Reading

By Loveggie (Grade 12 Level A)

 Everyone in this world knows that reading is very important. Why? Because through reading, people expose themselves to new things or new information. Besides that, reading does help you form a better you. You’d be able to understand the world more, and you’d be able to have more understanding on the topics that interest you. For example, you can learn how to build self-confidence, or how to improve yourself so that you can communicate better. It’s easy to see that we can gain so many advantages from reading a book.

Among all kinds of books we usually read, we would find a lot of books that are inspiring or motivating, whether it’s written based on true stories or not. These kinds of books can actually touch people’s hearts through their contents. And of course, there have been a lot of people who are inspired through reading these motivational books. They said, inspiring books would motivate them and show them how to take action and change their lives. And here I am, I’m going to share to you, one of the best inspiring books I’ve ever read that was able to touch my heart.

“Aku Terlahir 500gr dan Buta” is the title of the book. In English, it means, “I was born 500 grams and blind”, and it’s based on true story. A girl from Japan named Miyuki Inoue only weighed 500 grams as she was born. It was said that her fingers were the size of matches, and her head was the size of an egg. Her mother was miserable as soon as she knew the truth, to the point that she stopped listening to the Doctor’s explanation about the baby’s condition. Miyuki was treated and raised inside an Incubator in a hospital for seven months, and her mother was beside her every single day, no matter what, even if it was raining or snowing outside. In the age of 15, she only weighed 30kg, and she was only 143cm tall. Her father passed away months before Miyuki was born, she didn’t even have the chances to meet and talk to him.

The book tells us about her life stories, growing up as a premature. Throughout her life, Miyuki continuously showed the world that she could also grow up just like a normal kid. She ever learned how to ride a bicycle with her mother, and her mother, Michiyo Inoue, was very strict on teaching her. She would scold Miyuki whenever the girl said she wanted to give up on learning how to ride the bicycle, or when she complained about how hard it was to ride a bicycle when she was blind since birth. But in the end, Miyuki made it.

Aside from that, she also joined a national writing competition and won with her writing that was titled, “Air Mata Ibu” or “Mother’s Tears” in English. She joined a lot of other sport competitions, both inside and outside of her school, and it made her mother proud.

There were also times when Miyuki was sad and confused at how her mother treated her, being so strict even while knowing that Miyuki was indeed different from other children. Her mother ever told her to stay outside of the house, because of her lazy personality to study. Because Miyuki was too lazy to study almost all the time, her mother got very mad and she hit Miyuki. So she actually did stay outside of the house. It also is said in the book that Miyuki has ever asked God for a better mother, that she hated her mother for being such a “devil” towards her. Every time Miyuki was mad at her mother, she would call her mother a “Satan mother”.

But after a lot of time passed, she then realized that her mother did that because she wanted to give Miyuki her support as a mother, she wanted Miyuki to realize that she can also live as a normal person and do the things normal people are able to do. Because Miyuki is different from other children, her mother thought that Miyuki had to work harder than the others. Her mother told Miyuki that she raised her so well, so that Miyuki could achieve her dreams and say, “I’m grateful that I’m alive, even though I can’t see.”

That’s how Miyuki got motivated. No matter how badly Miyuki protested, her mother would always support her and tell her to do her best no matter what. After realizing that, Miyuki was very thankful towards her mother, she became obedient as soon as she knew her mother’s intentions in building Miyuki’s personality for her future.

This book and its contents are really precious to me, as they showed me how meaningful every single one of human’s life is. No matter what, even though you’re not physically perfect, it doesn’t mean that you can’t fight for yourself. If anything, you should be willing to fight harder to let the whole world know that you can do it, and giving up should never be an option.