Have you ever wanted to stay home and watch movies all day instead of going to a boring day at school? There is a certain man who has done everything in his power to achieve at least that partial knowledge that most people today take for granted. From a selection of "Learning to Read and Write," a portion of The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass: An American Slave (1841), Fredrick Douglass informs of the difficulties he overcame in learning to become literate. Aside from being taught the alphabet by his mistress (Mrs. Hugh), Douglass self-taught himself from a young age to read and write. Since his mistress had stopped tutoring him through her husband's direct influence, Douglass would befriend the "poor white children" by offering to them. Once a week I would be required to meet with my instructor to leave my work and ask questions if any arose during the previous class. week. This program has given me great flexibility to manage my schedule according to my standards. For example, I could now choose for myself when to start the day and when to start completing the weekly workload. Although not going to school every day was fun, I quickly realized that I felt lonely due to the lack of social interaction and decided to fill this void with books. I drowned myself in teenage stories as I embarked on adventures and energized by the enormous obstacles they were forced to overcome to save the world. Simply imagining those years of my life without all these experiences I had in books is impossible, the past would be dull and boring if I had played all day. For Douglass and me, books offered a new perspective on life. He discovered that slavery is not the only option for him in this life, and I discovered that there is more to life than socializing with others